Resources > Blog > January 29, 2021

Healthy Parkinson’s Communities™ Resource Roundup: Introduction to Cross-Sector Collaboration and Healthy Communities

As we round out the first month of 2021, we want to take a moment to celebrate the public launch of our Healthy Parkinson’s Communities initiative and share resources with you so you can bring it to your community.  

Too often, it feels hard to go from thinking “That is a great idea, I would love to see that happen in my community” to “That is a great idea, I am ready to take steps to make that happen in my community.” Maybe it’s because you aren’t sure where to start, or maybe there are so many resources out there that starting the work feels overwhelming. No matter the reason, we are here for you to try and make those huge strides seem manageable and exciting.  

We have spent a lot of time learning and finding resources that could be helpful to you in taking strides toward building a Healthy Parkinson’s Community in your area. Every month we’ll share resources that we find meaningful, in addition to creating tools of our own. While we love creating comprehensive guides to living well, sometimes there are incredible resources that already exist and don’t require replication. We hope the combination of materials will inspire you to act in your community.  

For our first Resource Roundup, we want to focus on the importance of cross-sector collaboration, collective impact, and healthy communities. We hope this will be the first step of many for you. Feel free to review one or all the resources below. This is the first of many collections of resources we hope will make your journey of community changemaking clearer. Next month we will share resources on how to develop a Community Action Committee in your area and lead highly effective and fun teams.

Healthy Parkinson's CommunitiesIntroduction and Overview of Collective Impact from Community Tool Box
This is a comprehensive overview and actionable guide to collective impact. It addresses the “what” and “why” of collective impact, when to start the work, how to implement, and who to engage. 

Community Action Model from Healthy Places by Design
This model is relevant for a variety of community health goals. It breaks down different levels of impact and provides real world examples of the work being done in several communities across North America.  

Healthy Cities/ Healthy Communities  from Community Tool Box
This resource dives into what a healthy community is. It explores the concepts of defining, creating, and promoting healthy communities. It also includes comprehensive information on the “why,” “who,” and “how” of building healthy communities.  

USNews Healthiest Communities: How They Were Ranked 
What makes a community “healthy” from an outside perspective? This article dives into The Healthiest Communities rankings and which metrics were used. This information could help inform how to determine what collaborations would be necessary in your community to build a healthy Parkinson’s community. 

Building Capacity for Community and System Change from Community Tool Box
This resource takes a different look at the impact and importance of collaboration to create change in a community. It reviews the potential and capacity for a community to create change and how to bring in collaborations to make that change happen with less burnout. It also highlights some barriers that may affect the work of community partnerships.  

Community Participation: A Self-Assessment Toolkit for Partnerships from Engage East Midlands
This is a very robust toolkit that outlines suggested steps for creating, maintaining, and engaging meaningful partnerships as well as ways to assess and troubleshoot.  It provides several tools to assess partnerships while implementing change in the community. 

Learn More about Healthy Parkinson’s Communities

Imagine living in a community where Parkinson’s leadership is strong. Where everyone living with Parkinson’s has access to quality care, support, and resources so they can live well with Parkinson’s every day. Where people affected by Parkinson’s have a sense of belonging and purpose, feel seen and supported, and are engaged in civic life. And where having a great quality of life, despite having a chronic illness, is prioritized by ALL. This is the reality we hope to HELP create in communities across the US and Canada.

Announcing Healthy Parkinson’s Communities™ – a new initiative from the Davis Phinney Foundation

The What, Why, and How of Community Action Committees (CACs)

Voces Unidas Unites, Amplifies, and Showcases the Voices of a Parkinson’s Community in Phoenix