history

As a regional hub for convening and connecting organizations working to improve public health, CHNA 20 is uniquely suited to lead a systemic project with broad implications for community health improvement. In Fall 2018, the CHNA 20 Health Equity subcommittee decided to pursue an action-oriented, solutions-based initiative to address transportation equity, considered one of the region’s most pressing social determinants of health. While there is much work being done in transportation both locally and throughout the state, many report that efforts are inefficient due to lack of meaningful, cross-sector collaborations to help coordinate existing systems and services.

CHNA 20's primary goal for this initiative was to convene, engage and lead a Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) for the Blue Hills region. Across the state of Massachusetts, RCCs bring together stakeholders to share information, identify unmet needs, develop local and regional transportation priorities, and raise awareness of the importance of transportation in the lives of residents. Prior to this time, the Blue Hills region lacked a dedicated RCC, so CHNA 20 collaborated with MassMobility to establish one. Since January 2019 a group of over 20 stakeholders, including state transportation experts, regional planners, municipal officials, leaders of community-based organizations, transportation advocacy representatives, and residents, have met regularly to discuss transportation, accessibility, and mobility challenges in the area.

Support for the Blue Hills RCC is provided in part by grants from the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH), and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital - Milton also generously provided funding, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) has provided technical assistance for the first two phases of the project.

assessment findings

From September 2019 through March 2020 the Blue Hills RCC conducted a regional needs assessment to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of our seven towns and cities as it relates to transportation and accessibility. With technical assistance provided by the public health team at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), we explored demographic data, created maps of current transportation services and important locations, and reviewed the transportation-related strategies outlined within municipal plans. We held resident focus groups to learn the important locations where people want/need to go and barriers to getting there, and in collaboration with the UMass Boston Center for Gerontology, engaged municipal officials, health and human service providers, and residents around the topic of healthy aging. Findings from these activities are highlighted in the infographics below.

action plan highlights

The action plan plan articulates a set of strategies and related actions for addressing transportation inequities and accessibility barriers in the Blue Hills region of Massachusetts. A “Strategy” describes an informed approach for achieving the BHRCC goal and an “Action” describes a specific and measurable step in implementation of a strategy. Read the full action plan to learn more.

prioritized actions

The full documentation on our action plan, strategies and ongoing priorities contains detailed plans and benchmarks for achieving our goals and evaluating our success. Over 25 different carefully articulated and fleshed-out actions have been identified for implementation over the next five years, with the hope that the BHRCC will eventually be adopted by the larger community and become a fully self-sustaining project/entity in the long term. However, it’s not feasible to undertake all 25 actions at once. In order to better prioritize the long-term vision for success, CHNA 20 and MAPC partnered to lead six prioritization calls and with BHRCC members in Fall 2020.

implementation focus

Throughout the first few months of 2021, a network of community stakeholders reviewed the above priorities and narrowed them further to guide potential pilot programs.

  • Improved Communication. It’s crucial that residents fully understand all the transportation options available to them, and how to navigate those options safely and efficiently.

  • Ensure Translation. While we anticipate that a communications audit and addressing communication concerns would result in translation of materials, it’s also vital to create new processes and systems that ensure ongoing translation efforts. In addition, aligning communication methods to meet the diverse needs of our communities is an important long-term step in our plans to address transportation equity.

  • Bring Resources to Community Hubs. While we envision solving transportation access and equity issues, the reality is that streamlining access to the most important health and human service resources would also play a significant role in unburdening the transportation system. We envision making it easier for residents to access crucial services by creating more centralized delivery systems.

pilot program

[More info. coming soon]