Breakout Sessions

Public health is exceptionally good at identifying what causes illness, injury, and death. But communities are sustained by more than the prevention of bad outcomes. The Leading Causes of Life framework invites us to pay attention to the forces that generate and sustain life: Connection, Coherence, Agency, Blessing, and Hope. Drawing on community health work with churches, Indigenous communities, people affected by overdose, and public health partners, David Tillman will explore what becomes possible when faith communities are engaged not simply as places to deliver health programs, but as essential partners in defining and cultivating health. The session will include lessons from North Carolina’s Faith in the Vaccine work and Harnett County’s SOLVE overdose prevention initiative, where faith leaders have served as trusted partners, co-creators, and decision-makers. Participants will consider how congregations and faith leaders can recognize, strengthen, and connect the life-giving assets already present in their communities.

Inviting community members to the table is not the same as sharing power with them. In this interactive session, participants will practice simple facilitation methods for moving from trying to get “buy-in” toward genuine co-creation. Drawing on approaches used in community health assessment, overdose prevention, and strategic planning, David Tillman will introduce practical techniques for surfacing different forms of wisdom, setting priorities collaboratively, and structuring decisions so that professional expertise does not automatically dominate. Participants will experience tools such as Ten Rocks, a participatory prioritization process that helps groups move from many individual concerns toward a small set of genuinely shared priorities. The session will emphasize techniques that congregations, coalitions, and community organizations can immediately adapt to their own work.