Learning Collaboratives as a Community-Organizing Strategy to Improve Heart Health

Cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases contribute substantially to illness, death, and health inequities in the US. Despite medical advances and interventions to improve the health outcomes among people with chronic diseases, additional strategies are needed. Communities are a powerful driver of health promotion and disease prevention. When engaged meaningfully, communities can enact and sustain health-related changes starting at the individual level and expand these changes to system and policy levels. Grounded in the social action model and the principles of shared governance, learning collaboratives can promote community engagement, mutual accountability, and local capacity building. By aligning public health efforts with community priorities, learning collaboratives offer a way to build community trust, deepen community partnerships, and support sustainable health initiatives. They can position communities not merely as sites of intervention but as meaningful change agents in addressing health. This article explores the use of learning collaboratives, and in particular, the Healthy Hearts Learning Collaboratives in Virginia, as practical tools for advancing community-driven strategies to reduce the incidence of chronic disease and poor health outcomes. It provides guidance for entities looking to implement learning collaboratives focused on improving health and ensuring that people with lived experience have an opportunity to contribute to improving conditions to promote health in their communities.