In January 2014, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) and the
United Way Worldwide co-sponsored a webinar entitled
Using The Guide to Community Preventive Services to Impact Health Aging. This webinar introduced participants to
The Guide to Community Preventive Services, also known as
The Community Guide, and how the
United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley in Allentown, Pennsylvania used it to influence community investments and select strategies to improve health of older adults.
During the live presentation, Corissa Rolón, Manager of Older Adults and Basic Needs Investments at the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and Director of Lehigh Valley Alliance on Aging, described how these organizations used
The Community Guide to create their investment plans, identify performance measures and tools, and develop interventions, such as the Gatekeeper Initiative. This initiative uses untraditional health advocates to help identify at-risk older adults living in the community. Identified individuals are connected to services that can assist with health issues, such as nutrition, physical activity, and access to mental and physical healthcare.
Read the full webinar recap or view the webinar archive on
TRAIN (course ID: 1048690).
Participants submitted questions for Ms. Rolón during the live presentation; however, not all questions were addressed, due to the number of questions and time constraints. The following are questions and answers that were not included in the webinar. Please add your questions and comments to this blog and keep this discussion going.
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Corissa Rolón, Manager of Older Adults and Basic Needs Investments at the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and Director of Lehigh Valley Alliance on Aging
Question 1: What does success look like for the Gatekeeper Initiative and what kind of community-level changes are you working towards?
Corissa Rolón (CR): The Gatekeeper Initiative supports the organization and community’s overarching goals of increasing the health of older adults and the number of older adults who are able to live independent, vital lives in their homes or communities. Specifically, The Gatekeeper Initiative will track the number of older adults connected to needed supports and services and the number of individuals and businesses volunteering and supporting the aging community.
Question 2: Are you using the Collective Impact model?
CR: Yes. We are using the five conditions of community success for the Collective Impact model.
- Common Agenda: We use a common Theory of Change model
- Shared Measurement Systems: We collect population-level statistics with a group in our area called the Lehigh Valley Research Consortium. United Way’s program measures tie to the measures we collect at the population measures. Some other funders and groups are using the common measurement system and we share statistics among one another, although we are still working to get all funders on board with our measurement framework.
- Mutually reinforcing activities: Our Theory of Change model helps with this a lot. We get all concerned members to buy into the larger concept and then groups take the pieces that are their specialty. We also hold regional conferences to discuss what everyone is doing and planning to work on to reduce duplication
- Continuous communication: Our United Way convenes various groups throughout the year to discuss common issues. This is usually issue specific groups.
- Backbone support organization: United Way is the backbone support organization for the initiative.
Question 3: How do or did older adults participate in the creation or execution of the Gatekeeper Initiative?
CR: United Way’s Alliance on Aging is a network of about 250 people from the Lehigh Valley community. Some people are younger and work in areas related to older adults, but many members are themselves older adults. We also keep close relations with the retiree groups from the various companies that run United Way campaigns and media groups such as a local magazine called Lifestyles Over 50. Older adults are always welcomed at any and all of our meetings and as part of the groups, they provided input on the presentation content and the selection of the project.
Question 4: Who did you partner with to develop and implement the Gatekeeper Initiative?
CR: We partnered with all the members of the Alliance on Aging – a network of nearly 250 people who represent over 100 companies and organizations. For this particular project, we worked closely with the Area Agencies on Aging and service providers to develop the warning signs for older adults and we worked closely with several utility companies and for-profits who are also Cornerstone accounts for our United Way to develop the trainings and how we would interact/approach companies.
Question 5: Have you been able to raise financial resources to implement this initiative?
CR: We are in the initial year of the project. United Way committed to funding the development and launch of the project but we have received primary financial commitment for year 2 from several of the companies involved.
Question 6: Is there an opportunity for individuals to advocate or volunteer to support this initiative?
CR: We consider every person trained through Gatekeeper to be a volunteer for the project. Even if he or she does not identify an older adult and make a referral phone call, he or she is keeping a watch out for older adults who might be in trouble. We do encourage people who are trained to become a member of the Alliance on Aging where they are able to do more advocacy for the project and encourage other companies to become involved.
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