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Funding for six Community Wellness Enhancement Projects (CWEPs) were approved in March 1999. These six grants were recommended to those communities that completed the planning process but whose projects were deemed needier in terms of requiring additional planning time and resources to increase the capacity of lead agencies and residents to fully engage around their work plans as wellness villages. These CWEPs received $90,000 each over 18 months, which provided some transition and continuation support. These grants represented an effort to validate the grantees’ achievement of some measurable progress toward completing the objectives of the planning phase. The CWEP sites engaged in environmental improvements and youth development activities as a means of improving community health. Moreover, they strengthened organizational and community capacity, with support from the Technical Assistance Program and the Evaluation/Dissemination Program. Activities included researching other opportunities for funding, partnering and working with other community-based organizations, participating in technical assistance workshops, and implementing one community health project in their community.

Goal:

Provide resources to strengthen organizational capacity to better address community health issues.

Objectives:

• Implement a strategic, resident-driven community health project outlined in a logic model and involving the Wellness Village Advisory Committee (WVAC) in a consistent manner.
• Develop and implement community capacity-building plans to sustain asset-based community health projects.
• Participate in the Technical Assistance Program and Evaluation/Dissemination Program.

Accomplishments:

• Developed a community health plan. Through participation in both the Technical Assistance and Evaluation/Dissemination Programs, CWEP sites identified community health problems and developed a plan to help address them.
• Several of the CWEP sites have received funding from this and other foundations for their community health projects.

Challenges:

• CWEP sites had difficulty remaining on track because of the infrastructure of the lead agency and decrease in resources. The six sites selected for 18-month grants made progress toward achieving their original objectives but needed additional time and technical support to strengthen their planning group. Typically, the lead agencies in these projects had issues with staff turnover, the need for improved relationships with community residents, a stronger commitment to youth and adult partnerships and competence in supporting meaningful partnerships, and the need for more involvement with, and commitment to, community health and environmental improvements.

Lessons Learned:

• Additional funding assisted CWEPs in building their organizational capacity and improving community health. Technical reviewers and those who conducted site visits, as well as evaluators of the planning phase and staff, recognized the importance of sending an affirming message to these communities to continue their community health work beyond the planning phase. In most instances, there was an energetic core of youth involved in each of the communities that were committed to a longer period of involvement. Their efforts were supported with the smaller grants.