Place-Based ECHO
ASTHO became a Project ECHO replication partner by launching an ECHO hub site!
Project ECHO originated as a method of educating clinicians, but it now represents a variety of different disciplines. ASTHO will serve as an official public health hub site, using the ECHO model to amplify the leadership capacity of its members through telementoring.
Background
With support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, ASTHO developed this Place-Based ECHO to align with the goals of the ASTHO Challenge: Building Healthy and Resilient Communities. This initiative aims to build healthy and resilient communities by investing in community-driven, place-based, cross-sector approaches. To achieve better health, implementing place-based strategies is vital to spur lasting, system-wide changes. Place-based initiatives help address health inequities by creating local opportunities for collaboration and leadership.
Purpose
The goal of this nine-month ECHO project is to examine key elements of successful place-based initiatives and highlight evidence-based resources and promising practices through a shared learning model.
- Participants will enhance their knowledge of community-led, place-based approaches and build leadership skills through didactic and case-based learning using the Project ECHO model to create innovation within state and territorial health agencies.
- The strategies identified during the ECHO will increase the awareness and readiness of states and localities to implement place-based models resulting in high impact, equity-based family health outcomes and true health system changes.
Advisory Committee
The advisory committee is comprised of leaders from key organizations committed to advancing health equity. The committee members were identified due to their subject matter expertise in critical elements of the Place-Based ECHO, such as health equity, place-based strategies, community engagement, and/or ECHO teleconferencing. They informed the development and delivery of the curriculum, selected knowledge products, and helped to design the structure of the ECHO clinics.
The curriculum for the ASTHO Place-based Approaches Project ECHO is based on current topics in the field and is developed by the Advisory Committee.
Components of the Place-Based ECHO
ASTHO recruited five multisector state teams led by the state or territorial health agency through a request for application (RFA) process. Required team participants include: state health agency staff, local health agency staff, business sector representatives, community stakeholders; partners from a non-health sector, etc.
- Teams participate in a nine-month community of practice, which includes two learning clinics per month.
- Teams complete an implementation plan.
- Teams participate in a 90-day challenge to execute an element of their ECHO project implementation plan.
- Teams participate in a site visit to one of the locations of a successful place-based initiative (model program featured during the ECHO).