By Colleen Kelty, Director of Impact
Waypoint provides a broad range of programs that support New Hampshire residents. While programs range from home care for seniors to emergency shelter for youth experiencing homelessness – common goals link all programs. This includes addressing non-medical factors that shape a person’s health and quality of life called Social Determinants of Health (SDOH).
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), SDOH are “the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality of life outcomes and risks.”
In November 2023, the federal government released its first-ever U.S. Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Health, recognizing the powerful role these factors play in shaping lives. SDOH have become essential benchmarks for understanding well-being.
SDOH are grouped into five core areas and Waypoint’s work interacts with each of these, with most programs impacting multiple areas:
Economic stability – encompasses employment, food insecurity, housing instability, and poverty. Waypoint’s comprehensive approach to addressing youth homelessness and housing instability—through drop-in youth centers, outreach programs, and transitional living—demonstrates our commitment to creating positive economic impacts.
Education Access & Quality – includes early childhood development and education, high school graduation, and language & literacy. Waypoint’s programs directly and indirectly influence educational outcomes. Our Early Supports & Services program has a direct impact by providing interventions for young children with developmental delays. This positively affects their overall educational experience and increases the likelihood of them graduating high school.
Health Care Access & Quality – covers access to health services, primary care, and health literacy. Many Waypoint clients lack access to high-quality health care. Our Home Care program helps seniors and individuals with disabilities maintain independence, while our Health Care Coordination program ensures children with chronic health conditions and their families receive the care they need. With 90% of our clients living below the poverty line or with low incomes, these services are crucial for those most vulnerable to gaps in healthcare access
Neighborhood and Built Environment – This includes access to healthy foods, crime and violence, environmental conditions, and housing quality. Waypoint’s services are community-based. We provide a key link for individuals and families to partners and additional services that can improve conditions in homes and neighborhoods. Our supportive services aim to prevent child abuse, domestic violence, and other forms of violence within homes and communities.
Social & Community Context – This area addresses factors such as discrimination, incarceration, social cohesion, and civic participation. For example, playgroups offered through our Family Resource Centers promote social cohesion, and our family preservation services have the potential to reduce incarceration rates. Events like our bilingual Storytimes further promote community connection.
However, the diversity of Waypoint’s services presents a challenge: how do we measure our collective impact? A successful outcome for a senior facing social isolation is vastly different from that of a youth experiencing homelessness or a parent learning new skills. How can we capture the full scope of the difference we’re making across all our programs while adopting a consistent approach to measuring impact?
We’re developing a new framework that will assess our impact through the lens of Social Determinants of Health. While SDOH has always been a focus in our programs, they haven’t been used as metrics to measure program success—until now. Our new impact framework will allow us to quantify our success according to SDOH criteria, offering a clearer view of the transformative effects of our services. Using SDOH also allows us to illustrate impact in a way that aligns with Waypoint’s values and the diverse needs of the communities we serve. As we implement this framework, we’ll continue to evolve, ensuring our programs meet the real needs of the people we serve, now and in the future.
Resources:
DOMESTIC POLICY COUNCIL | OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY. (2023, November). THE U.S. PLAYBOOK TO ADDRESS SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH. https://www.whitehouse.gov/. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SDOH-Playbook-4.pdf