PolicyLink -
HEAC Neighborhood Sector Technical Support Provider
Organization Overview
PolicyLink is a national nonprofit research, communications, capacity building, and advocacy organization working to advance policies to achieve economic and social equity. PolicyLink work is guided by the belief that those closest to the nation's challenges are central to the search for solutions. PolicyLink spotlights promising practices, supports advocacy campaigns, and helps to bridge the traditional divide between local communities and policymaking at the local, regional, state, and national levels.
PolicyLink partners with local organizations that have a vision for equity in their communities, and together we build a strategic roadmap to achieve that vision. Responding to local conditions and local goals, PolicyLink offers frameworks and tools; research and analysis; targeted communications and media support; tailored technical assistance and capacity building; and facilitates civic engagement and coalition building.
Technical Support for HEAC Grantees
PolicyLink will have four primary objectives. We will:
- increase awareness among local leaders of the connection between neighborhood conditions and healthy eating and physical activity;
- assist coalitions in identifying priorities for changing neighborhood environmental conditions and in crafting the policy changes that could achieve them;
- build coalition and community leaders' knowledge, capacity, and confidence to advocate for the identified policy changes that will improve neighborhood environments in ways that positively affect residents' abilities to purchase healthy foods and be physically active; and
- provide strategic assistance to help grantees achieve policy successes as a result of their advocacy efforts.
PolicyLink will be responsible for assisting TCE grantees in identifying policy gaps and opportunities in their communities that may reduce the risk for obesity. In our initial implementation phase we will conduct an assessment of grantees' readiness to engage in policy and advocacy activities. Following a thorough assessment period, we will begin implementation of technical assistance.
PolicyLink will build upon its extensive experience in working with national, state, regional, and local groups in identifying and framing policy opportunities and strategies to achieve policy impact. This includes building organizational and coalition capacities to successfully influence policies in the context of community needs. PolicyLink will apply a signature framework for understanding the need for a "place-based" approach to address obesity and diabetes. For the Healthy Eating, Active Communities program, PolicyLink will:
- Provide helpful resources to grantees on advocacy and communications strategies, maps of community conditions, and potential policies that could improve residents' abilities to eat healthy foods and be physically active.
- Develop and conduct tailored advocacy trainings.
- Provide one-on-one assistance on the policy process and strategy to meet the needs of local coalition grantees.
Look for the following on the PolicyLink website:
- Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Opportunities Through Food Retailing
- A Place for Healthier Living: Improving Access to Physical Activity and Healthy Foods
- Regional Development and Physical Activity: Issues and Strategies for Promoting Health Equity
- Advocating for Equitable Development
Contact Information
Website: www.policylink.org/
