Learning and Action in Policy and Partnerships (LAPP)
What is LAPP?
What is LAPP?
The Learning and Action in Policy and Partnerships (LAPP) funding program helped community partners engaged in data-sharing projects connect with state policymakers. The program ran in 2021-2022.
Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH) and the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) managed the LAPP program with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).*
*The views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
LAPP Round Two 2022
About LAPP II
In 2022, LAPP supported partnerships between local/state governments and communities as they leveraged COVID-19 relief funds to advance policies for data-sharing and data-integration efforts, improved a culture of health, advanced equity, and informed state policy development.
DASH’s experience and engagement with community, state, and national thought leaders suggested that leveraging the power and influence of state agencies provided a key opportunity to support and amplify existing community relationships and data sharing initiatives, while simultaneously helping states achieve their goals related to improving population health and health equity.
“Community members experiencing systemic health disparities are uniquely qualified to identify and implement equitable solutions. Equitable Spaces is encouraged that LAPP II created opportunities for those with this lived expertise to participate in the selection process of their partner grantees, demonstrating the project’s commitment to honor, value, and incorporate the knowledge and perspectives of those who have been historically sidelined in the decisions surrounding the policies and programs that directly impact their lives.”
Projects Included:
Nebraska
Developing a Roadmap for Democratizing Data for Housing and Homelessness Leveraging COVID-19 Funding
New Mexico
Support for Creation of Statewide Food, Hunger and Farm Data Infrastructure to Address Hunger and Food and Water Insecurity Worsened by COVID-19
Georgia
Invert the Burden: How to Build a More Equitable Service Access System to Address Persistent Inequities in Metro Atlanta.
Utah
Removing Barriers Utilizing Greater Digitization to Advance Navajo Elder Services in Coordinating Truly Wraparound Care and Services in San Juan.
Connecticut
Hartford Data Collaborative Behavioral Health Indicators for City Youth
Purpose
The aim of this effort was to enable communities to develop community-state partnerships to better inform inclusive policy and systems alignment at both the community and state level.
Increasingly, communities are testing new ways to improve health, well-being, and equity by sharing data among public health, health care, and social services systems. In addition to leading data-sharing efforts at a local level, community partners can also connect with state policymakers that have various tools and ‘levers’ at their disposal to support these efforts to improve health, especially within communities most at risk of inequities. These levers include:
Data access: community-level data can drive integration and inform state policy, and states may have data that is needed by communities.
Policy and legal clarity: states can clarify and amend as warranted the regulations that govern how and what data can be shared.
Shared services and systems: states may develop or purchase systems that can be made available to communities (e.g., health information exchanges, social services referral platforms).
Interoperability rules: communities and states may play a role in developing standards or guidance to ensure data can be linked across sectors.
Financing: states can change how services are paid for and what metrics need to be captured to align incentives and accountability; and support communities’ sustainable infrastructure development.
MCO contracting: states can integrate language into Managed Care Organization (MCO) contracts that encourage collaboration with communities (e.g., social services referrals).
Sharing data across sectors and building relationships among community and state partners can inform decision-making to improve community health and wellbeing, strengthen systems of care, and break down silos that perpetuate disparities and poor health.
LAPP Round One 2021
About LAPP I
In 2021, grantees from six states – Arizona, Connecticut, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington, D.C., and Washington State – received funding and technical assistance to enhance community data sharing capabilities and foster relationships between state governments, community based-organizations, and community members.
The initiative was developed with strategic planning and key insights from federal and state officials, community-based organization leaders, subject matter experts, and community members.