Articulating a Clear Statement of Purpose

• Does everyone across our organization, from staff to leadership to PWLE, understand why engaging PWLE is important to us?
• How does engaging PWLE show up in our organizational value statements and strategic plans (if at all)?
• If we don’t already do this, what barriers exist to formalizing a shared purpose in key organizational documents and messages?
  • How can these barriers be overcome?

Mission/vision statements rarely change, but strategic plans are updated regularly and offer a practical place to document the organization’s commitment to engaging PWLE. While the format of strategic plans can vary, they act as roadmaps that describe how organizations will achieve their mission and vision. They help align both staff and community stakeholders around a set of shared priorities and coordinated activities.

• Highlight how engaging PWLE is both a priority and a strategy. The strategic plan can include engaging PWLE both as an overall organizational strategic focus as well as highlighting how engagement supports other strategic priorities. If engaging PWLE is not already routinely addressed in your organization’s strategic plans, you can take these steps to begin:
  • Understand your organization’s planning cycle. Learn when the strategic plan is updated and who typically participates.
  • Start the conversation early. Initiate discussions ahead of the next planning process to identify opportunities, potential barriers, and the people who are needed to support the endeavor. Gaining department and executive leadership support and sponsorship will be essential to move the work forward.
  • Prepare to lead the conversation. Be ready to engage colleagues on why documenting your organization’s commitment to engaging PWLE matters, the benefits it brings, and any potential barriers or concerns.
  • Clarify the benefits of documenting the commitment. This may include:
    • Making your organization’s commitment to engaging PWLE visibleto community members and PWLE, which supports trust and transparency.
    • Raising awareness internally about the role and importance of engaging PWLE to build staff buy-in and an organizational culture that values lived expertise.
    • Connecting opportunities to engage PWLE with specific organizational priorities and initiatives to create meaningful impact.
  • Share examples. Offer models, including the ones provided below, of how other organizations have documented their commitment to engaging PWLE in their strategic plans, value statements, mission/vision language, and other foundational materials.

National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s Statement of Principles includes: “To accomplish its mission, the National HCH Council strives to[…] maintain active relationships with a broad range of service providers, consumer and advocacy groups, academic institutions, and public officials, in the United States and internationally.”

Community Care includes, “Community Engagement and Access,” and “Stakeholder Satisfaction,” as foundational strategic pillars, to align their evaluation work with priorities around member participation.

Community Health Plan of Washington ties their Member Advisory Council (MAC) work directly to strategic plan targets, linking successes to organizational performance goals, such as Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) scores.

HealthierHere’s 2024-2028 Strategic Priorities include, “Elevating Community Voice” as a priority within their strategic pillar called, “Equitable Systems Change”:

Image description: An infographic presenting key information about HealthiereHere’s mission, vision, values, goals and 2024-2028 strategic priorities. Text boxes containing this information are set against an illustrated backdrop of a road winding through a lush landscape with evergreen trees.

• To what extent are PWLE currently involved in the development of our organization’s strategic plans?
• Are there ways to deepen or expand the way PWLE inform the development of our strategic plans and priorities?
• If so, what is needed to make this happen?

• Consider different approaches for engaging PWLE in the development of an organization’s strategic plans and priorities. Consider the following for your approach:
  • Engage PWLE through existing community or patient-family advisory committees. These committees provide opportunities for committee members to contribute their insights and feedback during the strategic planning process.Ideally, these conversations occur early so input can meaningfully shape the plan rather than be just a review of a near-final draft.
    • Conversations can be led by a member of the organization’s leadership team who is actively involved in the strategic planning.
      • Before meeting with the committee, it can be helpful for the planning team to consult with frontline staff who work with PWLE and/or PWLE in leadership roles on the committee, e.g. Chairs or Co-Chairs. These preparatory conversations can help structure the discussion, clarify the purpose and context of strategic planning, and shape questions that create opportunities for PWLE to meaningfully inform the plan.
  • Include PWLE in governance boards and oversight committees that participate in the strategic planning process.
  • Engage a broader range of community voices through listening sessions and focus groups, and review findings from previous efforts to identify themes and priorities that should inform the strategic planning process.
• Track and document contributions from PWLE. Regardless of the approaches used to involve PWLE in strategic planning, it is important to track and document their contributions. Recording specific insights and suggestions that are incorporated into the plan allows the organization to measure and communicate the impact of engaging PWLE.
  • See: Understanding the impact and outcomes of engaging PWLE

HealthierHere: As a part of the strategic process, their Community and Consumer Voice Committee (CCV) and Indigenous Nations Committee (INC) members are provided with a draft of HealthierHere’s strategic priorities to give  a clear picture of the direction HealthierHere is headed in the coming years. HealthierHere’s CEO consults both the CCV and INC for advice, guidance, and insight into the strategic priorities before they are adopted by HealthierHere’s governing board.

“There were a number of decisions that the board or the organization had to make around[…] what our strategic priorities should be, and or what our equity guidelines and principles as an organization should be. And in all of those cases, there were very intentional meetings with the advisory groups, or the Indigenous Nations Committee or the Community and Consumer Voice Committee, to have them think through and weigh in on what our strategic priorities should be.”

• Does our organization treat engaging PWLE as a “nice to have” or is it part of the way we do business?
• How are we funding our efforts to work with PWLE?
• Do we have documented policies and processes that support consistency in the ways we engage PWLE?
• Is our engagement with PWLE consistent or do efforts fluctuate over time?

Victor Murray, Senior Director of Community Engagement & Capacity Building at the Camden Coalition, discusses what sustained commitment looks like within his organization.

The idea of “sustained commitment” can feel vague, intangible, and difficult to put into practice. One way to define sustained commitment is to look at whether the organization invests in processes, policies and structures for engaging PWLE that are meant to last long-term or even permanently. You can:

• Incorporate a formal commitment to engaging PWLE into your organization’s values statements and strategic plans
• Create dedicated staff roles and allocate resources to support meaningful engagement of PWLE
• Create organizational policies and bylaws to create seats for PWLE on governance boards and key committees
• Set up formal processes, like feedback loops that staff and leadership can follow
• Keep building real, ongoing relationships with PWLE—even when there’s no specific project or request
• Include engagement activities with PWLE in grants and contracts, and budget for the resources they need to participate fully.
• Publicly give credit for the contributions from PWLE and be a champion of the work.

Read topics related to sustained commitment in these sections:

• Hiring and training dedicated staff
• Integrating PWLE into governance and operations
• Establishing feedback loops that support action

For the Community Health Plan of Washington, including engagement with PWLE in their strategic plan helps them to justify and prioritize the work.

“Not every organization has a formal strategic plan, but I think having [engagement with PWLE] written into your strategic plan,or whatever the organization sees as its “true north,” having it represented there is really critical because then that just trickles down to support when you need a resource for the work. “Hey, it’s on the strategic plan. We have to meet these targets. I need that resource.” Right now, we’re in a really tough staffing position, so if anybody vacates a position, we have to significantly justify why we’re even replacing somebody right now to our executive leadership team. And one of the ways we do that is if it’s something on the strategic plan or if it’s a regulatory requirement. So that’s really critical. If we didn’t have it in our strategic plan, in times like now where we have so many other priorities, it would get shoved down the list for sure.”