Background To improve child health equity it’s critical to look beyond the hospital to address holistic needs of families, including social determinants of health. The All Children Thrive Learning Network (ACT LN) in Cincinnati has partnered with families and community organizations for nearly a decade. A core strategy has been training key community leaders in non-health sectors to apply Improvement Science within their organizations.

Objectives Share Improvement Science methods with community partners providing critical services to shared customers/patients.

Methods Cincinnati Children’s Hospital has developed an array of supports for community leaders to learn and adopt Improvement Science methods: existing QI courses (leader course, rapid cycle course, lean methods course) made available to community leaders; a new course tailored to meet unique needs of community; and direct coaching for senior executives at these organizations. Organizations and leaders are invited based on ACT LN’s theory of action for achieving child health equity.

Results There are hundreds of community leaders in 45+ community organizations who have completed Improvement Science trainings. Key partners integrating QI methods in their work include a large urban school district, public health department, public benefits agency, parenting center, and others. Specific improvement initiatives range from accelerating Head Start enrollment to increased school attendance to more public health home inspections.

This presentation will describe the evolution of courses and participants; share case examples from multi-sector organizations using QI methods; describe how this shared mental model allows cross-organizational collaboration; and describe current innovations to accelerate citywide collaboration. Participants will consider key non-health partners in their own communities and identify potential for collaboration.

Conclusions Non-healthcare community partners, with a direct impact on families we serve, have embraced Improvement Science methods to improve outcomes. With many leaders now trained in these methods we find increased opportunities to collaborate for increased impact.