The action approach. Integrating a community's needs into the corporate planning process

With the city of Detroit in turmoil, Mercy Hospitals and Health Services of Detroit (MHHSD) is trying to assimilate the community's unmet needs into the corporate planning process. Through the Community Assessment of Human Needs process, MHHSD identified the needs of the poor in three of Michigan's most impoverished areas. On the basis of these findings, MHHSD collaborated with the Poverty and Social Reform Institute to form the East Side Initiative, a community planning effort to address the community's unmet needs. An advisory group was established to oversee the East Side Initiative's planning process. The East Side Initiative participants met as one group and in smaller groups to focus on specific needs in the areas of healthcare, crime prevention, substance abuse, education, housing, economic development, and family (social) supports. The proposed action plans of each small group have received approval. In the second phase of the East Side Initiative participants will attempt to obtain the necessary resources to implement the groups' proposed actions.