Menu of Services
The Regional Center for Healthy Communities (RCHC) Metrowest is funded by the Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Abuse Services (BSAS) to provide technical assistance (TA) to BSAS-funded community coalitions throughout the 60 Metrowest communities. We also strive to support non BSAS-funded Metrowest groups as much as we can considering our funding constraints and limited staffing capacity.
The RCHC develops a Memorandum of Understanding with BSAS-funded communities to outline the specific technical assistance (offered through coaching, tip sheets, facilitation and co-facilitation of group processes) for the year. For non-BSAS-funded groups, decisions about services are made on a case-by-case basis. We work with coalitions at all stages of development – i.e. with coalitions that are just forming to coalitions in place for decades - to identify selected services from the menu below.
Our overarching principles for our work:
- Move groups towards self-sufficiency
- Promote best practice and evidence-based models
- Assist communities in brokering effective partnerships
- Build collaborative relationships across the region
Services available to ALL Metrowest communities:
- Free lending library of health resources including books, curricula and DVDs available to anyone who lives or works in the Metrowest area
- Information on best practices to help you build and strengthen coalitions
- Networking and partnership building opportunities with other coalitions though the quarterly coalition meetings we convene
- E-news, a bi-monthly newsletter with information on resources, funding, job opportunities, trainings, and events
- Free trainings are offered about once a month. Training topics are guided by the results of our annual training needs assessment. Examples of previous training topics:
- Evidence-based models for substance abuse prevention
- Best practices for youth development/leadership
- Social marketing
- Creative ways to present data to your community
- Phone consultation about best practices in prevention and coalition-building
- Information about the latest research and best practices in prevention science
- Referrals to other community resources
- Connection to our partners in a statewide support system for healthy communities work including the MassPartnership for Healthy Communities, the Office of Healthy Communities in the Department of Public Health, and other Regional Centers.
Services available to BSAS-funded coalitions:
For BSAS-funded coalitions we provide ALL of the services listed above as well as facilitation, consultation, training, and support.
We provide tools, templates, and strategies for:
- Building and supporting lasting coalitions with effective and appropriate structure, such as:
- Examples of decision-making models and coaching on selecting appropriate models
- Training and coaching on leadership development
- Strategies for integrating youth into your coalition
- Coaching on and templates for effective meeting facilitation
- Examples of by-laws and coaching on their development
- Identifying community needs and evaluating coalition work, such as:
- Existing sources of data that can be used in assessment and evaluation
- Strategies and methods for collecting additional data to use in your assessment and evaluation (e.g., surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc.)
- Coaching and tools for understanding and using data
- Examples and strategies for sharing data with your community
- Planning and implementing your work, such as:
- Templates of logic models and coaching on using them
- Examples of and assistance with development and implementations of workplans
- Coaching and tools for identifying best practices and strategies supported by the research
- Examples and coaching for your communications and outreach strategies
- Assistance with grant writing (proposal feedback only)
We would love to speak with you about what we can do to help you and your coalition or group. Feel free to call us anytime! 617.441.0700