Message from the Executive Director

Creating a Meaningful Community Planning Process 

Amie Miller, PsyD., Executive Director

Last fall we told you about a major initiative we launched to help redesign the community stakeholder planning process, as required by Prop. 1. We’re excited to share that our collaboration with human-centered design firm IDEO will be completed by mid-May, with not only a redesigned process that works for you but a set of truly useful tools that you can apply to your own community planning.  

This work is part of our larger partnership with DHCS on behavioral health transformation. In order to create the kind of streamlined process that would better serve counties and stakeholders, we thought it was important to streamline our own objectives for this project, so our goals are straightforward:  

• Improve stakeholder engagement 
• Simplify complex budget processes 
• Build county leadership capacity 

By the end of this month, we will have completed our research and landscape analysis with stakeholder interviews (county leaders, advocates, and Prop. 1 proponents and critics)​; field research, case studies and best practices​; and a complete landscape analysis and report​ to guide the next phases.  

In March and April, we’ll focus on creating a process and guidebook for your teams, to include an outline of Prop. 1 requirements, stakeholder engagement strategies and communication tools​, and actionable content and templates​. 

In April and May, we’ll complete the initiative by designing a comprehensive leadership training curriculum​. We’ll pilot the training with a few counties, incorporate their feedback, finalize materials​, and create a recorded training session and materials for use in all 58 counties on an ongoing basis. 

As our IDEO colleagues travel around the state, meeting with different counties and learning from them, they’re sharing with us their inspiration from your work to dig deep and make community connections that matter.  

Rest assured that we are all committed, week by week, to advancing this process in a way that not only checks a box but creates real transformation for your counties. 

February 4, 2025