The Healthy Gorge Initiative began with the premise that collectively, what we had done over the past decades was not enough… we were not getting much healthier. Every year we were facing the same issues. If we expected a different result, we knew we would need to do something different. So we did. 

 

The first step was to change the paradigm around how community issues are identified and then, how those issues are addressed. 

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Paradigm change #1: Authentic Community Engagement 

We shifted the question from 'HOW do we identify community issues' to 'WHO identifies community issues?' We believe that every person is an expert in their own lived experience. We also believe that the best way to create health is to ask people most impacted what they need. We ask, we listen, and then we respond. In practical terms, this enables us to understand what the people who live and work in this community actually need and want to be healthy. We call this authentic community engagement.

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Paradigm change #2: Collaboration

With a better understanding of the issues that needed addressing, we began to identify existing resources, align those resources to maximize their effectiveness, and then leverage all of that to create programs to fill the gaps. In short, we design community-identified solutions that address community-identified needs.

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Paradigm change #3: Collective Impact Health Specialist

Once these two changes occurred, we needed to secure funding for the new programs: The CIHS is a community-based role funded by Providence Hood River Hospital in collaboration with United Way-Columbia Gorge and Hat Creek Consulting. The CIHS supports and leads the above work and then, leverages the paradigm changes to write grants securing funding to support those programs.