Community-based health improvement: lessons from the Learning for Action Institute, Simmons College

The Learning for Action Institute at the Graduate School for Health Studies, Simmons College, uses continuous quality improvement concepts and methods to help community-based groups to make positive change. Eight core concepts are the basis for creating sustainable improvements, developing new models for community capacity, and building and disseminating knowledge of what has been learned. These concepts are: clarify the aim, form the right team, target improvement efforts, use data, listen to the customer, use tools and methods, conduct improvement and learning cycles, and make improvements. Two community-based projects are used to illustrate the concepts.