BHST Part Two: OC Navigator Recommendations

The following are recommendations related to factors that are external to Orange County.

differences. Numerous resource directories can be found within and outside of Orange County.

Having a plan in place to address the differences and how the resource directories complement one another can help reduce confusion among community members trying to access resources for themselves or others.

○ “It could be useful to get representatives in a room together and map out on a whiteboard for each service: Who are your main ‘customers’, what do you offer them, what do you do best, what is your biggest weakness…then compare each service’s strengths and create a strategy to complement each other.” (Stakeholder suggestion)

The following are recommendations related to factors internal to Orange County, such as community engagement.

• Continue to center community engagement during innovation and implementation processes. Understanding diverse perspectives and community needs is essential to innovation and implementation success. Engaging with new communities that are not yet present will further inform the innovation and implementation success. Future marketing and engagement strategies can focus on reaching these populations. ○ Engage more diverse community members to ensure the OC Navigator can meet the needs of the community, including additional monolingual communities, religious/faith-based communities, and racial/ethnic groups. • Maintain strong communication and positive relationships with involved stakeholders and community members. Trusting relationships are important for project success. Creating a friendly and trusting atmosphere where providers and community members are comfortable sharing their unique experiences and expertise can support further improvement and outreach. • Address challenges for longer and more consistently scheduled sessions. Session length and scheduling were challenges identified by survey respondents. It may be helpful to have meetings at set days and times with reminders sent well in advance, and where feasible extend the time of current meetings and/or hold more frequent meetings to allow people to be more engaged with the project. • Balance time for discussion and sharing of information during meetings. It is important to allow individuals time to process the information being shared during the meeting while also allowing time for them to share their own learnings and opinions.

• Use a friendly tone and high energy when facilitating meetings. The energy of facilitators impacts engagement. Facilitators should speak in a welcoming manner and should regularly check in with participants, thanking them for their input. • Show enthusiasm and belief in the OC Navigator. Talking about favorite aspects of the OC

Navigator can help “break the ice”. It can also facilitate buy-in and engagement. • Create clear and concise marketing and engagement tools. Creating both digital and on-theground outreach tools in different languages can improve outreach efforts to the diverse array of communities that make up Orange County.

Establishing different strategies for introductions and presentation of information to community stakeholders can help accommodate varying levels of familiarity and increase engagement.

The following are recommendations related to OC Navigator features/development.

• Streamline the addition and maintenance of resources on the OC Navigator. Development of a “bulk export” feature for more efficient transport of resources onto the OC Navigator platform, determining a plan for maintaining up-to-date information, and allowing ratings or comments of resources (like Yelp) may improve consumer usage of the platform (Stakeholder suggestion).

the community with progress. Community members suggested the importance of adding videos and interactive components to the site to share success stories in order to increase engagement.

They have also suggested the addition of an automated chatbox to help guide individuals who are experiencing challenges using the platform (stakeholder suggestions).

The following recommendation relates to efforts around planning.

• Balance specificity and flexibility during the planning stage. Be aware of county regulations/ bandwidth and budget constraints during planning and throughout project progression (Stakeholder suggestion).