Washington, D.C., September 19, 2024 — Convergence Center for Policy Resolution (Convergence), a leader in building collaborations across political and ideological divides to solve intractable issues, released the Convergence Collaborative on Social Factors of Health Blueprint for Action titled Health Starts Here.  

Forged by more than 40 leaders spanning the political spectrum and from a broad spectrum of professional domains, organizations, and life experiences, the consensus solutions address “upstream” influences on community and household health, often called social determinants of health, or health-related social needs. Organizations and experts from health care, housing, social services, nutrition and other sectors were involved. The release of the Blueprint is followed by an October 10th Webinar with Collaborative participants and leaders of the project. 

“The creative policy solutions shaped by the cross-sector Collaborative show that we can come together on challenges even within our complex system of care. The recommendations in this report capture actionable steps that can be taken on federal, state, and local levels, as well as the private sector to create the best policy environment for local partnerships,” notes Stuart Butler, who is leading the Collaborative and is a Member of the Convergence Board. He also serves as a Scholar in Residence at Brookings Institution. 

The group’s consensus solutions are organized into four categories:  

• Improving System Integration: Consistent guidance for community partnerships from federal and state agencies would spur more local partnerships. Also, greater incentives and funding are needed to expand outreach and impact by supporting “community hubs” or “backbone organizations.” This will support partnerships across social and health sectors, and between levels of private and public organizations.  

• Building an SDOH Workforce: Success in addressing SDOH in a community requires trusted community-based workers with strong local knowledge. Community Health Workers (CHWs), social workers, and similar professionals typically have these attributes. However, it is important to note that the best team is one that is tailored by a community to meet its own needs. This will help address the problem that many in the health and social service workforce do not have the training, resources, flexibility, or authority needed to coordinate services across sectors to tackle social needs that affect a person’s health.  

• Financing SDOH Approaches: Upfront investments in non-clinical social services, and in the “infrastructure” of collaboration, are needed to address social factors of health. Both government and private investment are needed and can produce savings and service improvements. Policy changes are needed to ensure that budget rules, payment systems, etc., make cross-sector community investments a logical business or public investment decision; that is often not the case today. 

• Addressing Data Sharing, Evaluation, and Experimentation: Accurate and timely data collection and sharing across sectors is a critical element in fostering collaboration to advance SDOH approaches. Better data systems will help measure the effectiveness of SDOH strategies and to build a more complete understanding of the connection between nutrition, housing, education, transportation, other factors, and community health. The federal government and states need to consider several steps to help build a cross-sector information infrastructure.    

“Addressing social determinants of health requires collaboration, complex thinking, and openness to creative solutions across differences,” says Mariah Levison, Convergence CEO and President. “This group has forged a promising path forward, highlighting what is possible and how we can achieve meaningful change in our healthcare and social systems.” 

Generous support from funders, CommonSpirit, Episcopal Health Foundation, and Kaiser Permanente, made the Convergence Collaborative on Social Factors of Health possible. Their partnership contributed to “setting the table” for the Collaborative with their thought leadership, ideation, and for support for the Convergence process, which catalyzed consensus and helped to build understanding across the Collaborative. Support for the Collaborative, however, does not constitute endorsement of specific consensus solutions made in this Blueprint for Action.   

About Convergence Center for Policy Resolution  

Convergence is the leading organization bridging divides to solve critical issues. Through our time-tested collaborative problem-solving methodology, we bring people together across ideological, political, and identity lines to improve the lives of Americans and strengthen democracy. For more information, visit convergencepolicy.org.