ACTION Items with Kim Johnson

Dear colleagues,

If you’ve stopped by the ACTION Campaign II web site recently, you may have noticed that we’re featuring a new promising practice or two each month. Just what is a promising practice? Well, we define a promising practice as an improvement strategy that:

• Generates staff enthusiasm and positive consumer response
• Is easy to implement and measure
• Has a positive impact on the bottom line
• Can be sustained successfully
• Has proven successful for multiple agencies

And we encourage you to test a promising practice (or two, or three) in your organization. One of the easiest ways to find out how to test a promising practice is to participate in the ACTION Campaign II webinars that we offer twice each month. Our webinars bring you the real-world experience of others in the field who’ve tried out a promising practice.

Along with joining our webinars, you can visit the Provider Toolkit, which includes an array of promising practices that were carefully selected based on their success in the field. If you’re not sure which one to try, take a look at our guide to promising practices. This guide can help you select a practice based on its ease of implementation or potential to make a positive impact on your organization’s bottom line—the business case impact.

Promising practices were among the many topics that the ACTION Campaign team members discussed at a recent meeting with some of our partners in sunny Orlando. I would like to thank the representatives from the Addiction Technology Transfer Center, the State Association of Addiction Services, and the participating states for their willingness to promote the campaign and support providers in their area in implementing promising practices.

I would also like to take a moment to introduce Mike Weaver, who recently joined the ACTION Campaign II as campaign coordinator. Mike is available to attend meetings and conferences and will support the efforts of the 25 newly trained social marketing experts who will help us disseminate information and engage providers in changing the way they do business.

While Mike is based on the East Coast, Rochelle Green works at the NIATx program office in Madison. Rochelle plays a key role in lining up speakers and providing logistical and technical support for the ACTION II webinars.

February may be the shortest month of the year, but there’s still time for you to catch our February 18 Webinar, which will focus on a couple ways to increase your insurance billing, and to try out a promising practice before March rolls around.

As always, we love hearing your stories. We’ll be announcing a new ACTION Campaign II story contest shortly. Submit your story and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win one of five free registrations for the 2010 SAAS National Conference/NIATx Summit—with all expenses paid! Watch your e-mail for details.

In the months ahead, the ACTION Campaign II will share more simple changes that you can test in your own organization, along with more inspiring stories from your peers across the country.

With best wishes from the ACTION Campaign II, Kim Johnson Director ACTION Campaign II