Inaugural Population Health Forum Retreat

On February 15, 2009, 9 members of the Population Health Forum met to energize around action steps toward continuing the mission and goals of the PHF. We heard about the history of the PHF and present day constitution of the group. After sharing our own unique pathways to and interests in understanding population health, we collectively came to concrete understandings of the issues behind the forum’s mission and goals.

As steps toward action, we brainstormed about potential audiences we hope to reach with our messages about population health and started to develop lists of allies we hope to connect with as we move forward in spreading the word about population health disparities. Finally, we outlined digital and non-digital mediums for which we hope utilize as we begin a new phase of outreach and growth for PHF. We will create a blog that can help intra-PHF communication and self-education. We hope that in the near future, the blog and other digital technologies can be employed PHF in unique ways to ‘spread the word’. We also began to develop an outreach plan for community events for awareness and action raising around issues of population health. We will report on our research and action items for new directions at the next PHF meeting, March 3rd, 2009.

Overall, the meeting successfully engaged new members of the forum behind the mission and goals of the organization. We are inspired, excited, hopeful and enthusiastic. We are ready to move forward.

- Tegan Callahan