Affiliates take part in technical assistance workshops: Phoenix, Atlanta workshops focus on marketing, management.

APHA's Affiliate Capacity-Building Initiative continued its forward momentum this spring, holding in-person technical assistance workshops in Atlanta and Phoenix. In addition to providing direct capacity-building grants, the initiative provides for technical assistance to all 53 APHA state and regional Affiliates over the next three years.

Seventeen Affiliate representatives traveled to Atlanta April 28-29 to take part in a two-day workshop held on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention campus. A second workshop, offered May 6-7 at St. Luke's Health Initiatives in Phoenix, drew an additional 23 Affiliate representatives.

APHA offered two sets of training locations and dates to accommodate the diverse geography and time commitments of the Affiliates, said APHA Deputy Director of Affiliate Affairs Catherine Henze, MPH. The two trainings mirrored each other in content with three half-day sessions focused on the topics of organizational marketing, membership and association management.

The workshops were highly interactive, and allowed ample time for participants to share and discuss ideas with one another. The sessions balanced presentations with group tasks and other forms of hands-on learning.

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

"I found the session really worthwhile," said APHA member Ronald Winter, JD, project manager and past president of the Rhode Island Public Health Association. "The presentations were excellent. Some of the most valuable periods were during interchange among the Affiliate participants.

"It is always valuable to met some of the other grantees in person," Winter added. "Telephone and computer contacts--being impersonal--don't encourage exchange beyond the immediate issues at hand. Face-to-face contact allows exploration of backgrounds, interests and experience. These fit the immediate contributions into a much larger context."

Affiliate representatives participated "enthusiastically and collaboratively" in the workshops, and seemed to enjoy the opportunity to share and generate ideas with each other, Henze said. APHA and the Affiliate Capacity-Building Initiative's Advisory Committee selected the topic areas based on the needs and interests of the Affiliates.

"Public health associations are comprised mostly of members with backgrounds in health," Henze said. "But advancing the organizations and their impact on public health at a state and local levels often requires additional skill sets. The technical assistance efforts are intended to equip them with knowledge, skills and resources to help them strengthen and build the capacity and infrastructure of their organizations."

Among other technical assistance opportunities, APHA will offer a Webinar series on financial management concepts for nonprofits this month. Through Oct. 30, all 53 Affiliates also may use up to three hours of individual consultation on developing or updating their strategic and business plans. Thus far, approximately 10 Affiliates have taken advantage of this opportunity, Henze said.

APHA received funding for the initiative from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2006, $2 million of which has been set aside to provide technical assistance to all 53 state and regional affiliated public health associations.

For more information about APHA's Affiliate Capacity-Building Initiative, call 202-777-2508, e-mail [e-mail] or visit www.apha.org/membergroups/states/kellogg.