The Backyard Initiative (BYI) is a dynamic partnership between Allina Health and its neighbors to improve health and health care in the seven communities immediately surrounding Allina Commons, Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Phillips Eye Institute. The BYI was designed and managed by the Cultural Wellness Center (CWC). The BYI supports efforts to strengthen community health by empowering residents to draw upon their own knowledge, skills, and cultural values to care for themselves, their families and their neighbors.
The Backyard Initiative Partnership:
A Coming Together to Achieve the Common Goal
Allina Health:
The Department of Community Benefits and Department of Applied Research
Researches new care models to transform health and health care by collaborating with partners to foster innovative approaches to providing care.
The Backyard Area
45,000 Residents
475 blocks, and 15,248 Households
within the neighborhoods of
Ventura Village, Phillips West, East Phillips, Midtown Phillips, Central, Powderhorn Park, Corcoran,
The boundaries are Interstate 94, Hiawatha Ave., Interstate 35W, and E. 38th Street
The Cultural Wellness Center
Has a proven history and is dedicated to
developing cultural approaches for positively impacting health and
health care, economic development, and
community building.
Definition of Health
framing our work
Health is a state of physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being.
The infrastructure of the BYI
(NOTE: The Community Commission Health is a 35 member body made up primarily of residents within the BYI target area. It serves as the leadership body for the Backyard. The Commission is responsible to realize the community”'s vision on health and for keeping and ear to the pulse of the community.
Members of Allina Health”'s Dept. of Community Benefits and Applied Research are also members of the Community Commission on Health, Assessment Team and other parts of the BYI.)
To learn more about the exciting ACHIEVEMENTS of each BYI Community Health Action Team or CHAT, see the Special Insert in the December 2013 issue of The Alley Newspaper!
It is not only the absence of infirmity and disease.
Health is the state of balance, harmony, and connectedness within and between many systems”“the body, the family, the community, the environment, and culture.
It cannot be seen only in an individual context.
A partnering of the expertise and resources of health care institutions with the wisdom, competence, and experiences of residents, the BYI added a new dimension to a health system that focuses on promoting health in addition to treating sickness. From the beginning of 2008 to now, the CWC facilitated, organized and coached Allina”'s partnership with the community in successfully engaging community residents to improve health through self-study, surfacing and producing knowledge, cross-cultural knowledge exchange, and relationship building.
In 2009, early in the process of developing the BYI, residents were engaged to develop a Definition of Health. This definition became the foundation for the BYI and continues to guide its work today.
In 2010, a BYI Assessment Team was convened to create a picture of the state of health and well-being of the 45,000 BYI residents. Walk- around surveys and listening circles dialogue sessions completed involving 650 people. Community Health Action Teams (CHATS) formed as health practice teams. Team members made contact with approximately 300 people through outreach and working sessions. Thirty-five people were identified/named as Community Commissioner”'s on Health .
The CWC organized and coached residents and Allina staff in building an infrastructure that would maintain community engagement and grow the capacity of the residents to sustain the initiative over time.Â
