The Health & Wellbeing Capacity Building Series: From Vision to Action is a five-session learning experience designed to help cities strengthen their ability to advance community wellbeing through clear frameworks, actionable policy tools, meaningful data, sustainable resources, and creative processes grounded in arts and culture to amplify impact.
This webinar series is designed to help city leaders make concrete decisions – from defining priorities to aligning funding and implementing solutions in real-world conditions. Each session builds toward helping cities answer a core question: How do we turn a vision for wellbeing into sustained, measurable impact?
Through a mix of national expertise and city-grounded practice, the series emphasizes impact, alignment, and scalability, supporting cities as they strengthen how they deliver results for residents.
Events In This Series
Thursday, May 14, 2026, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Building the Foundation: Defining and Advancing Wellbeing for Cities
“Wellbeing” is a critical yet sometimes misunderstood concept in public policy. Many cities struggle with how to measure, define, and connect wellbeing to local programs and investments. This session explores how city leaders can integrate wellbeing into local governing strategies and develop a shared understanding of wellbeing that reflects local priorities and resident experiences.
Participants will explore how wellbeing can function as a unifying framework across departments, learn how to adapt indicators to their local context, and examine ways to integrate wellbeing into planning, performance management, and community engagement. This session sets the stage for the Capacity Building Series by grounding participants in a shared understanding that can be used to guide real policy, funding, and implementation decisions.
In the next session, we will explore how to translate this shared understanding into concrete policy and systems-change strategies.
Thursday, May 28, 2026, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Frameworks for Action: Policy Tools & Real-World Examples
The second session will highlight tools and resources to help cities advance wellbeing in their communities through policy and systems change. Policy is one of the most powerful levers a city can deploy, shaping how solutions are scaled equitably across communities. Participants will be introduced to two complementary tools: the National League of Cities’ Policy & Systems Change Compass and the Local Policy Hub.
The session will provide an overview of the Compass–a practical, step-by-step framework that guides cross-departmental teams through problem definition, root cause analysis, and policy development. The session will also highlight the Local Policy Hub’s Healthy Housing module, providing policy examples, along with downloadable ordinances, adaptable language, and supporting resources. Participants will also explore how to move from framework to adoption and implementation across departments.
In the next session, we will focus on how cities can use data and storytelling to measure, communicate, and align around the impact of these policy choices.
Thursday, June 11, 2026, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Making Impact Visible: Using Data & Narrative to Drive Alignment
Data alone does not create change; how cities communicate data matters. This session helps participants demonstrate and communicate impact by connecting data, values, and lived experience.
Led by PorchLight Insights, this session will guide cities in transforming quantitative and qualitative data into narratives that resonate with residents, staff, and decision-makers. Participants will learn best practices for ethical and accessible data use, techniques for pairing data with community voice, and approaches for using storytelling to build trust, inform decisions, and align stakeholders around shared wellbeing goals. The session will also emphasize how data and narrative can directly inform decision-making and resource allocation.
Building on this, the next session will focus on how cities translate these insights into strategic funding decisions to sustain and scale their work.
Thursday, June 25, 2026, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Sustaining the Work: Strategically Leveraging Opioid Settlement Funds
Thursday, July 9, 2026, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Creative Processes: Expanding Impact Through Arts & Culture
Each Session Will Feature:
- National experts and experienced practitioners
- Practical tools and frameworks
- Real-world examples from peer cities
- Resources and references for deeper learning
- Space for reflection, discussion, and shared learning
Who Should Participate
This series is especially relevant for those leading or supporting cross-sectoral efforts to advance community wellbeing.
- City and county staff across departments
- Local elected officials & city managers
- Public health and human services leaders
- Policy, strategy, and performance teams
- Cross-sector partners working with local governments
Whether your city is just beginning to explore wellbeing or looking to strengthen and scale existing efforts, this series offers actionable insights and tools to support your work. Together, these sessions provide a practical roadmap to help cities move from a wellbeing vision to sustained community impact.