The health of our community depends on how well we work together! Our primary purpose on the Garrett County Planning Tool is to give everyone an opportunity to share their voice by connecting to help improve the issues that matter most to all of us!
We’ve removed the obstacles of needing to be at a meeting or hold a certain agency status to participate, and expanded our conversations to include all kinds of topics that affect both our individual and community health.
Instead of waiting every three years to conduct a formal assessment, anyone is invited to speak about the issues they struggle with as well as their greatest successes at any time. This dialogic communication creates a culture of responsiveness and helps shape programs, services, and better positions stakeholders to compete for funding opportunities using the hyperlocal data reported on the Planning Tool. The insights gained from the extensive qualitative and quantitative data is vital because it helps to tell our story. In order to understand all the nuances of each person and the lived experience of our local heritage, we need opportunities to share who we are and what matters to us. In this context, data is the most meaningful if it mobilizes action. The Garrett County Planning Tool continues to demonstrate the power of transparency as it relates to both the collection and reporting of hyperlocal data to spur action.
My intention in the creation of this unique planning experience was to harness the local knowledge, care, and passion of the people in this community and turn it into a pure force for good!
Now that we have the opportunity to share this work on a global level as the Garrett County Planning Tool (mygarrettcounty.com) is released in part under GPLv3 as the Universal Community Planning Tool (UCPT) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation thru the Public Health National Center for Innovations (PHNCI), a division of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), we invite you to join our expanding UCPT family.
Here’s a shout out to all of our local planning partners, those who watch our work from afar, and those who will continue development and refinement of the initial framework to improve population health advancements for us all.
A special acknowledgment to the initial pilot cohort, five brave communities we had the privilege of teaching and mentoring.
I’m honored you’re here and deeply value your contributions to this body of work.
Shelley Argabrite
Garrett County Chief Health Strategist
population.health.blog 