TICD aims to establish and promote healthy and healing microcommunities. The process in which these microcommunities are developed is led by behavioral health community organizers. These organizers have been intentionally trained to facilitate block-level interventions.
The process focuses on people and is intended to help communities block-by-block establish H.O.P.E. plans. These plans are an effort to create a sustainable culture of health and well-being.
H.O.P.E. stands for:
Health and well-being;
Opportunity making;
Place making; and
Engaging influencers.
This plan comes out of a consultative workshop designed to help block members identify and build protective factors and identify and minimize risk factors. The strength of the process is that people are able to create their own plans. This direct engagement leads to a better understanding of what is beneficial to and what is a challenge to life in the community. At the same time, it brings real resources to the community to use where it sees fit. Community members also use this same process to create housing cooperatives that enable members to address issues like ownership of property.
The cooperative would also have a H.O.P.E. plan that would reinforce a culture of health and well-being among cooperative members.
The effect of these interventions is measured by imHealthy, a health assessment tool. This tool is designed to be used by behavioral health community organizers to help blocks and cooperatives understand the effects of their H.O.P.E. plans.
The tool would enable these microcommunities to have a collective health score around which residents and members could rally. If these strategies become widely adopted, they could spur a much-needed movement that begins to address the root causes of many challenges facing African American communities today. For more information, or to become involved, contact FOCUS Pittsburgh at https://focusnorthamerica.org/centers/pittsburgh/.
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