Coalition work isn’t always easy. Often, health professionals and community partners can get burned out on their hard work towards achieving healthy eating and active living goals. At the 2018 Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities, keynote speaker Fran Butterfoss, Ph.D., MSEd., will reignite the spark for community coalition work.
During her keynote presentation, “Ignite: Getting Your Coalition or Partnership Fired Up for Change,” Butterfoss will address the challenges that community coalitions face when working with limited resources to accomplish their goals.
“Health professionals and community partners often feel burned out by working harder, not smarter to accomplish organizational or community goals related to promoting healthy eating and active living,” says Butterfoss. “They may be frustrated by difficulties in recruiting and retaining diverse and active partners, finding sustainable financial and material resources, resolving conflict and making decisions or creating effective strategic/action plans.”
As President of Coalitions Work, a group that helps coalitions build and sustain community change efforts to promote health and prevent disease, Butterfoss has seen these scenarios play out repeatedly. She’s even written best-selling books about the topics: Coalitions and Partnerships in Community Health and Ignite! Getting your Community Coalition Fired Up for Change.
Like the name of her second book, her keynote presentation at the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities will focus on four stages of building coalitions:
- Before You Build It,
- Build It,
- Make it Work, and
- Sustain It!
She will talk about the structure and processes that coalitions and partnerships need to manage themselves; develop their staff, members, and leaders; plan and carry out effective strategies; evaluate what they do; and sustain themselves long enough to accomplish their goals. Butterfoss will provide attendees with the spark and practical tools that will help to build capacity for community work.
“Coalitions are powerful vehicles for building the skills of professionals and volunteers, thereby empowering them to advocate and act on behalf of priority populations within their communities,” says Butterfoss.
With clients such as the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society, Butterfoss and her team at Coalitions Work have taught countless public health coalitions and partnerships—across the country and at all levels—to build and sustain community change efforts. Their work empowers these groups by building capacity and enhancing their ability to effect positive changes in the health of the communities they serve.
Butterfoss earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing and master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania. After 15 years, she decided to get her doctor’s degree in public health promotion and education from the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health while her husband was stationed at Fort Jackson. In addition to her work at Coalitions Work, she is a professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
The Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities will be held October 29-30 at the Spartanburg Marriott in Spartanburg, SC. It’s the only statewide conference that unites healthy eating and active living content specialists and decision makers from South Carolina. Early bird registration is open until October 5th. Scholarships are available for those who are in need of a reduced registration fee.
For more information, including pre-conference workshops, visit the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities website.