Community Leadership Council
We rely on our Community Leadership Council (CLC), made up of volunteers from around the state, to provide strategic input to staff and the Board of Directors on organizational policies and actions. Click on this link to see who our current CLC members are.

The Community Leadership Council (CLC) meets monthly to talk about events, policy and strategies. We also build in what we have learned in all of our public engagement efforts. Our work is guided by the Triple Aim, and it’s three objectives, to:

1. improve the health of a defined population;
2. reduce or contain per capita costs; and
3. to improve the experience of users of the system. With a vision and mission focused on public engagement, we continually look for opportunities to translate often complex and complicated system language into ideas that the public can understand and weigh in on.

This spring the CLC met to discuss what the focus should be as we look forward to implementing both federal and state health reforms and how this can influence the activities our organization undertakes throughout the year.

Our organization took a position on a bill for the first (and only) time in 2011. It was a bill that would have required Oregon’s licensing boards to work together to determine whether and how they could incorporate cultural competency into licensing requirements.  The CLC felt that this bill fit squarely with the Triple Aim, specifically that it would lead to an improved ‘experience of care’ for users and for providers. The bill did not pass, but it generated more interest in health equity.

This year, the CLC agreed to these focuses:

• Foster discussion on health equity through a broader lens, one that includes people of color, Native Americans, people of all ability/disability levels, the LGBTQ communicate, elders, and veterans, crossing lines of poverty, education level, geography, and political persuasion.
• Explore and use an equality/human rights framework. Based on the book, The Sprit Level, the CLC agreed with its premise, based on data, that more equitable societies are also healthier.
• Support continued discussion of a publicly-owned plan, which was dropped from federal reform, and to follow formation of federally financed CO-OPs as they progress in Oregon.
• Continue to advocate for principles embedded in the for-benefit corporate model, including inviting Heerad Sabeti to Portland to meet with local and regional leaders.
• To build a list of potential nominees for boards, advisory committees and councils from around the state.
• In addition, staff and members of our CLC currently participate in the following coalitions because of their policy focuses:
  • Human Services Coalition of Oregon: promotes the dignity of all Oregonians through improved public policy and strengthened support for human services.
  • Health Equity Policy Committee: assembled to proactively evaluate all recommended policy improvements throughout the policy making process to assure they fully promote the elimination of inequities and promote health equity.
  • Allies for a Healthier Oregon: the strategic center for collaboration among organizations and coalitions across the state to support consumer health advocacy.
  • Oregon Health Reform Collaborative: working with more than 25 organizations to develop a common vision and message for a vastly improved health care system in Oregon.