Community Collaborations How MAPP Works


How MAPP Works


What is MAPP?

Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) is a community-wide strategic planning tool for improving community health. This tool helps communities prioritize public health issues and identify resources for addressing them.

The World Health Organization defines "health" as a state of well being, greatly influenced by the factors that create healthy communities. MAPP's goal is optimal community health - a community where residents are healthy, safe and have a good quality of life.

Using MAPP, community residents and others work together to achieve community health. MAPP helps individuals identify and use local resources, consider their specific circumstances and needs, and form partnerships. Community members collaborate to identify local health needs and the best methods for addressing them.

MAPP provides the framework for creating a truly community-driven initiative. It brings diverse community interests together to determine the most effective way to conduct public health activities.

Broad community participation is essential to the MAPP process because a wide range of organizations and individuals contribute to the public's health. Public, private and voluntary organizations join community members and informal associations in providing public health services.

How MAPP Works

MAPP involves a continuous process:

The six phases of MAPP:

Phase 1
Organize for Success/Partnership Development

The DeKalb County Board of Health serves as the lead organization for the MAPP process by recruiting community partners and coordinating local activities. Because broad community representation is desired, partners are recruited from throughout DeKalb County.

During this first phase participants undertake two critical and interrelated activities: organizing the process and developing the partnerships. This phase structures a planning process that builds commitment, engages participants as active partners, uses participants' time well and results in a plan that can be realistically implemented.

MAPP is a community-driven initiative. People who live, work and play in DeKalb County work together at every stage of the process. Partners include local banks, hospitals, social services centers, schools and universities, faith based organizations and other DeKalb County representatives.

 

Phase 2
Visioning

The second phase of the MAPP process is visioning. A shared vision and common values provide a framework for pursuing long-range community goals. During this phase, the Steering Council answers questions such as "What would we like our community to look like in 10 years?"

This phase guides participants through a collaborative and creative process that leads to a vision and values statements.

 

Phase 3
MAPP Assessments

The four MAPP assessments provide important insights into opportunities and challenges throughout the community. The four assessments are used to identify strategic issues, which are then used to formulate the project's goals and strategies.

 

Phase 4
Identify Strategic Issues

The opportunities and challenges generated by the four MAPP assessments are used to identify strategic issues. During this phase, participants seek linkages among the assessments to determine the issues that must be addressed for the community to achieve its vision.

Phase 5
Formulate Goals and Strategies

Participants formulate goals and specific strategies for each of the strategic issues. Goals and strategies provide a connection between the current reality (what the local public health system and the community look like now) and the vision (what the local public health system and the community will look like in the future). Together, the goals and strategies provide a comprehensive picture of how local public health system partners will achieve a healthy community.

Phase 6
Action Cycle

MAPP's final phase is the action cycle when the participants plan, implement and evaluate. These activities build upon one another in a continuous and interactive manner and ensure continued success. The efforts of the previous phases begin to produce results, as the local public health system develops and implements an action plan for addressing the strategic issues.