Art of Hosting

Healthcare

Art of Hosting is beginning to make inroads into the practice of healthcare.  A decade-long inquiry into affordable healthcare in Columbus, Ohio, USA is built on Art of Hosting practice.  Starting with the head of the Medical Association, who found colleagues and partners in other leaders across the community, Our Optimal Health is an initiative that has included medical practitioners, patients, healthcare organizations and the wider public.

It is an on-going inquiry aimed at streamlining and strengthening affordable healthcare across the community and a model of how participatory practices can make a change in the way complex and challenging community issues can be worked with.  Many other initiatives and inquiries have sprung from this work. Inside the Medical Association itself, it is proof that participatory practice works alongside standard organizational practices in ways that bring successful results.

Working with challenging issues

The New Mentality, a network of youth and adults in the mental health system in Ontario, use Art of Hosting to engage youth in decision-making processes and decrease the stigma of mental illness. Disable the Label 2010 was an Art of Hosting training for 50 members of the community.