A Tool Box for Community Health
The state of your health throughout your lifetime has much to do with where you live. For those interested in building healthier communities, the University of Kansas has a Community Tool Box with advice and resources on the basics of community health. The University’s Center for Community Health and Development established the toolbox in 1994 and has continuously updated it since, offering it in English, Spanish, Arabic and Farsi.
The Community Tool Box is divided into key sections that provide specific guidance, best practices and links to other sources of information. The key sections include:
- “Learn a Skill” presents 46 how-to chapters on forming partnerships, developing a strategic plan, performing community assessments, evaluation, and planning for sustainability. Each chapter is broken into step-by-step sections and includes forms, checklists and tools, real-world examples, and links to online and print resources for more information.
- “Help Taking Action” provides a database of resources and best practices, online courses and a troubleshooting guide.
- The “Connect” tab links to videos, community stories and also provides a forum for users to ask specific questions of online community members and experts.
The Center for Community Health and Development also offers complementary services, including capacity building and technical assistance, training, and evaluation.
Learn more about improving health by exploring LISC’s work to build healthy communities.