North Dakota Meeting Facilitation December 9 2008

By Richard A. Aronson, MD, MPH

On December 9, 2008, I facilitated an exciting meeting, "Uniting for a Healthy Future: Integrating Systems for North Dakota’s Children, Youth, and Young Adults", sponsored by the North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities at Minot State University. The meeting took place in Bismarck and drew 35 diverse stakeholders, including several family members who shared inspiring stories of resilience, advocacy, and activism. The purpose of the gathering, funded in part by a federal grant from the United States Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Bureau, was to develop collaborative partnerships for creating integrated, family-centered, culturally competent systems of care so that children and youth with special health needs in North Dakota have the full equal opportunity to thrive in body, mind, and spirit. I helped the group 1) Identify common work efforts taking place around the state, that focus on advancing the medical home, cultural and linguistic competence, family involvement, and youth in transition to adulthood; 2) Build on current strengths of such efforts; 3) Identify how partnering on a shared vision may help enhance outcomes; and 4) Develop partnerships to sustain systematic efforts to build a healthy and productive child, youth, and young adult population in North Dakota. Broad participation of many stakeholders is essential for promoting medical home systems of care, and for assuring that integrated systems are in place to support youth with special health needs in their transition to work and adulthood. This kind of participation, rooted in core principles of cultural competence and family involvement, challenges us to develop new forms of collaborative leadership. This becomes even more urgent at times of economic crisis. Such leadership seeks to unite stakeholders and serve as a catalyst for essential but previously unlikely partnerships. It enables people to discover common ground for action that they did not realize they shared. Such discovery can bring dignity, hope, and equity to children and youth with special health needs and their families. To facilitate the day, I drew from Future Search, guiding the group through a series of small group activities (Mind Map, Prouds and Sorries, Ideal Future Scenario, Confirm Common Ground), each of which was followed by large group dialogue. Future Search, developed by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, is a uniquely interactive planning tool that has been used with notable success during the past 25 years in many of the world’s cultures.