State Health Literacy Coalitions

Hi Everyone,

Does your state have a Health Literacy Coalition? If so, please write in and tell us about it! Many states have developed coalitions or collaboratives, which bring together a variety of organizations that have a stake in improving health literacy within their state. Many of these collaboratives include literacy organizations, as they are an important resource for educating adults and connecting them to health agencies and services. Other partners could be state health departments, libraries, medical, nursing and other allied health schools, hospitals and health centers, refugee assistance and social work organizations.

Here are some ways to learn more about state health literacy coalitions:

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has a listing of state health literacy coalitions

Some examples of those that have strong literacy partners:

Please tell us about your experience with state or regional HL coalitions!

Best,

Julie

Comments

The Georgia Alliance for Health Literacy has been established for about 2 years now, and we are gradually developing a formal organizational structure.  We are a free-standing, open organization with a diverse membership comprised of folks from academia, from many facets of the healthcare industry, and from public health agencies, as well as clinicians, consumer advocates, community services providers, and other fellow travelers.  Most of our activities to this point have fostered education and awareness about health literacy for the general public and for health professions educators, coalition-building, networking among health literacy professionals, and resource sharing.  Our quarterly membership meetings have generally focused on specific themes, including recent meetings about adult literacy learning, about Text4Baby, and about the state of health literacy in nursing education.  As many of you know, there's a great deal of health literacy expertise and activity in Georgia, so it's a rather lively group.  For further information feel free to contact GeorgiaHealthLiteracy@gmail.com, take a look at our evolving webpage at www.GaHealthLiteracy.org, or contact me (drubin@uga.edu). 

-Don Rubin

Thanks, Don!

Yes, Georgia's coalition has come quite far in a short period of time! I have heard good things about your work. I wonder if you could share with this group how the adult literacy partner(s) have contributed and benefited from being part of the coalition?

Thanks again!

Julie