At the first ABLe Change convening in November, 2018, more than three-dozen participants–from community mental health organizations, substance use disorder treatment providers, hospitals, public health agencies, housing organizations, law enforcement agencies, educational institutions, and other sectors–worked to develop an overarching goal for long-term work that would increase community well-being, reduce harm from substance use, and identify metrics that will be used to evaluate progress. At the second convening in February 2019, participants designed collective strategies to address barriers to community health and substance use recovery.
At the third and final convening, participants will share community input on the systems change efforts that resonated with stakeholders, which organizations are interested in championing them, and which seem problematic. Then participants will collaborate on an action plan, including what to do, how to fund it, and how to see it through.