From Evidence-Based Implementation Guides to Meaningful Action: Public Health Practitioners Use Readiness Assessments to Build Bridges to Successful Community Prevention Implementation.

Readiness has been cited as a determining factor in whether a community can effectively implement, support, and sustain an initiative. Through readiness assessments and technical assistance, public health practitioners can be the bridge between the gap of reaching goals outlined in Healthy People 2030, or another funder's guides, and actionable, successful, implementation. Readiness assessments are practical tools for implementing change in public health. Here we discuss three readiness assessment activities that we developed for four Texas counties: a partnership mapping tool, an Ease and Impact score, and a round table discussion. Through the assessments, we ascertained both readiness and the relevance of Policy, Systems and Environment opportunities. We used readiness assessments to translate our funder's implementation guide to meet the needs of four counties. Data allowed us to determine whether communities were ready to move forward with minimal technical assistance, needed further assessment to better understand relevance and feasibility within the community to implement the initiative, or whether this opportunity was not a good fit at the time. We adapted readiness tools based on components of the R = MC2 framework so we could assess the readiness (motivation [M]; general organizational capacity [C]; and innovation-specific capacities [C]) of the participant groups and based on that assessment, we provided appropriate, tailored technical assistance. Public health practitioners and local supporters can use readiness tools and technical assistance to build a bridge from implementation guide(s) to effective community program implementation.

Post-Ike economic resilience along the Texas coast.

The economic devastation resulting from recent natural disasters has spawned intense interest in programmes that promote regional resilience. The economic impacts of Hurricane Ike (September 2008) endured long beyond the storm's landfall, compounded by a national recession. This study analyses the pattern of post-Ike industrial growth in eight coastal counties of Texas, United States, and identifies sources of resilience and potential drivers of recovery. The results indicate that post-disaster growth patterns differ from established growth patterns. Levels of resilience vary across industrial sectors, and service sectors tend to lead a recovery. The resilience of the hotel and restaurant sector, for instance, suggests that the presence of relief workers might immunise certain sectors against a post-disaster economic downturn. Besides the sectors that are generally resilient, each county has its own distinct sectors that, depending on the extent of the damage suffered, tend to perform strongly after a disaster, owing to the characteristics of the respective county's economy.