The California wellness foundation's Health Improvement Initiative: evaluation findings and lessons learned

To evaluate the effect of the Health Improvement Initiative (HII), a 5-year grantmaking initiative funded by The California Wellness Foundation designed to identify the critical factors needed to bring about population health improvements through community-level systems change.

The evaluation of the HII used a case-study, logic-model approach to make inferences about the effect of each community coalition (Health Partnership) on its target community. The primary outcome measure was the creation of significant and sustainable community-level systems change.

The HII included nine communities in California that received funding to create broad-based Health Partnerships.

Primary data were collected from a variety of Initiative stakeholders by key informant interviews, closed-ended surveys, and participant observation.

The HII provided funding over 5 years to nine Health Partnerships that were intended to be a driving force in implementing community-level systems change. The ultimate objective of the systems change process was to improve "population health, " broadly defined to include social economic, and cultural determinants of health, in addition to traditional health status indicators.

Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to assess the effect of the HII on key community systems. The primary outcomes were qualitative descriptions of community-level changes.

At the end of the 5 years of HII funding, six of the nine Partnerships had played a critical role in implementing sustainable systems changes that would likely have a significant effect in their target communities.

The HII was successful in promoting community-level systems change in the majority of funded communities, although the evidence was mixed regarding the role of the Partnerships in bringing about these changes.