STRONG Accountable Care Community

The STRONG Accountable Care Community (STRONG ACC) is building a brighter future for children, families and communities in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. Founded in 2018 and comprised of over 400 organizations, the STRONG ACC's collective impact work is focused on planning and implementing collaborative, cross-sector "upstream" strategies that prevent and reduce "downstream" adverse outcomes for individuals and families. Following two years of intensive, multi-sector, stakeholder engagement and planning, the STRONG ACC's 24-member Leadership Council adopted a four-year strategic plan. This plan centers on a trauma-informed, 2 Generation, resilience-based life course model that emphasizes the essential interface between educational, economic, and health outcomes. Implementation of the strategic plan is underway, including the following initiatives: development of a regional data dashboard, utilization of the Unite Us technology platform to create No Wrong Door for all needed resources, training for educators on adverse child experiences (ACEs) and trauma-informed education, and creation of workforce training initiatives targeting youth and young adults. In 2020 the STRONG ACC was evaluated by FSG, a leading think tank on collective impact work. FSG summed up its finding when stating that the STRONG ACC "has made tremendous progress in a short period of time when compared with other collective impact initiatives at the one-year mark."