One of the things I appreciate most about Global Health Corps is our vision statement. We acknowledge that many population health issues are complex requiring knowledge, skills and actions far beyond the traditional bounds of health. Partnerships are therefore at the very core of our fellowship model. I have had the privilege in the past one year of working in the Division of Strategic Health Planning within the City administration of Newark, sitting on committees in a number of City partnerships. These experiences have been incredibly insightful and exciting. A few months into my fellowship, I became technical lead for the progress report of Let’s Move! Newark. This is easily one of the largest city-wide partnerships in Newark with over 65 partners within and outside the city, ranging from big private sector players such as Johnson & Johnson, to much smaller but trusted community-based organizations like Kids Corps. In brief, Let’s Move! Newark is the local campaign launched by Mayor Cory Booker to eliminate childhood obesity in Newark leveraging the momentum of the corresponding national initiative led by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Obesity is unwieldy: behind a condition tied to unhealthy eating and physical inactivity, are a myriad of “upstream” factors. Let me paint a picture of the eating and physical activity experience of an obese child. Underlying the daily unhealthy choices this young boy makes are, perhaps an unsafe neighborhood that forbids play in the park; absent biking paths to school and very little time for gym when he gets there (gym does not equal grades!); a vending machine in the school premises entirely stocked up with high-calorie foods and drinks; and fresh foods in the corner store priced so high his mother is forced to make potentially harmful food purchases. It is this unwieldiness that made forming the Let’s Move! partnership so necessary for impact. The campaign looks to empower American children and their communities to eliminate obesity by provision of information for healthy choices and by actively promoting community environments that support healthy lifestyles. For every health education program that a partner in the coalition runs, there is an upstream factor being addressed by another: banning trans-fats use in public eating spaces; introducing physical screens in child health clinics; creating urban farming spaces; renovating city parks and other recreation centers; facilitating fresh food store conversion; constructing safe sidewalks and bike lanes; and actively reviewing vending machine products.
Working on this report has been exciting for several reasons. At a vantage point, I could see how a coalition was built around a complex issue, how partners were identified and their strengths leveraged for greater collaborative results than they could ever accomplish individually. It gave me the opportunity to work with senior city officials such as Deputy Mayor Margarita Muῆiz, who chaired the coalition, and see firsthand how visionary leadership could enable organizations with varying bottom lines find common purpose. I learnt that sustaining momentum depended substantially on keeping communication lines open, to empower each partner and facilitate ironing out of differing perspectives. I also saw the importance of local community buy-in even for big coalitions, as the target population became active participants in the designing, implementing and evaluating programs in schools, churches and the neighborhood. Finally, I thought hard around my concept of impact: How could I measure the combined impact of hundreds of simultaneous, unique programs? Could numbers really tell the whole story? Well we figured out a way to tell the tale: the Let’s Move! Newark progress report was presented by Mayor Booker to the Partnership for a Healthier America a few months ago. I could finally heave a sigh of relief after last-minute sprints to incorporate data from some elusive but hardworking partners! The efforts of our data-crunching subcommittee have been recognized by the National League of Cities with awards, as well as by the State Health Department’s Shaping NJ initiative.
This whole experience has reinforced my commitment to fostering partnerships where necessary in whatever capacity I work within global health. For example, I subsequently facilitated the formal inclusion of the Division of Strategic Health Planning in the evaluation work group of Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait, an initiative of March of Dimes aimed at reducing premature births among African-American mothers. It was obvious to me how deep ties with the target community and expertise in data analysis within the Division of Strategic Health Planning were strengths the coalition would find useful towards achieving their aims. I leave this fellowship thinking deeply about how to facilitate environments in which young people tend towards partnering around big issues. How instead of working in silos, we can see the reward in breaking them down, merging resources, and building coalitions across disciplines, organizations, sectors, and countries. It is my opinion that fostering “big-issue partnerships” will be a game changer for complex population health challenges across the globe in the years to come.