A Delta Region Community Health Systems Development (DRCHSD) Program Community Champion is someone who can help spark culture change. Community Champions play an influential role in creating a shift in their community toward healthier living. They are key in helping their organization prepare an infrastructure for population health. The DRCHSD Program supports one Community Champion for each selected health care organization.
Resources for Community Champion Hiring
The following resources should be used as guidelines for hiring a Community Champion for each health care organization. These tools provide a job description to use on various platforms, questions to ask during the interview, as well as a worksheet used to evaluate the interviewee for the role of Community Champion.
Conduct community care coordination planning and implementation activities in their community, with the support of and guidance from their organization’s leadership and DRCHSD Program staff.
Serve as a connection between the DRCHSD Program, their own health care organization, and their community.
Engage community organizations in community care coordination activities.
Fully participate in and be engaged in all DRCHSD Program training and development activities (learning collaboratives, conference calls, annual summits, workshops, training boot camps, and other projects)
Building Community Champion Capacity for Community Care Coordination Planning
The DRCHSD Program supports Community Champions with virtual and in-person educational training that will help them develop the skills needed to perform their job. Educational opportunities include learning collaboratives, webinars, face-to-face meetings, peer-to-peer networking, bootcamps, workshops, and ongoing coaching through various modes of communication.
The DRCHSD Program will track the Community Champion's attendance rates to determine the level of participation and engagement. Additional Program activities and responsibilities for the Community Champion role are defined in the document below.
During the multi-year program, Community Champions will take part in professional development opportunities with the goal of increasing independence in the following areas:
planning and coordinating logistics for onsite events and other community care coordination events;
understanding and sharing their Community Health Status Report;
researching secondary data (e.g.: community health data, hospital data, etc.);
implementing and tracking the status of action plans with community partners and leadership;
developing materials for events (e.g.: presentations, planning worksheets, etc.);
updating community partners and leadership on the status of action plans;
co-facilitating events along with DRCHSD staff;
utilizing facilitation methods to promote meaningful collaboration with community partners and health care organization staff (e.g.: focused conversations); and
becoming a more inspiring and effective community leader.
The extent to which employees are passionate about their work and committed to the organization (engagement) and the choice by an employee to stay with an organization instead of seeking employment elsewhere (retention).
