Community Education 

Current Community Education Topics

Healthcare Systems Literacy: Understanding Who Does What

Introduces participants to a structured way of understanding complex healthcare and human-service systems. Participants learn how to identify responsibility, distinguish roles, locate oversight and accountability, clarify processes, and determine what mechanism may move an issue forward.

• Best for: Community organizations, caregiver and family-support programs, disability organizations, libraries, healthcare organizations, and professionals supporting people across complex systems.

Healthcare Ping-Pong: Breaking the Cycle of Repeated Redirection

Examines what happens when people are repeatedly transferred, redirected, or told to contact someone else without meaningful resolution. Participants learn how to identify who owns the issue, ask for greater clarity, document what happens, and locate the mechanism that can move the matter forward.

• Best for: Individuals and caregivers served by community organizations, disability and family-support groups, healthcare consumers, and professionals who regularly help people navigate complex systems.

Beyond the Referral: When a Referral Is Not a Handoff

Explores the difference between providing a referral and creating a meaningful connection to the next service or resource. Participants examine responsibility, communication, follow-through, common breakdown points, and what happens when the person being referred is left to coordinate the process alone.

• Best for: Healthcare and human-service professionals, community organizations, care teams, family-support programs, and organizations that routinely make or receive referrals.

Who Owns the Next Step? Responsibility, Accountability & Follow-Through

Helps participants determine who is responsible for what, where decision-making authority sits, who oversees a process, and what to do when ownership becomes unclear. The program also examines how administrative burden can shift onto individuals and families when responsibilities are poorly defined.

• Best for: Caregivers, disability and family-support organizations, community programs, healthcare consumers, and professionals working across multiple systems.

From Information to Action: Making Healthcare Information Usable

Examines the gap between receiving information and actually knowing what to do with it. Participants learn how to clarify information, identify the decisions or responsibilities involved, determine what questions remain unanswered, and translate information into practical next steps.

• Best for: Community organizations, libraries, caregiver programs, young-adult programs, patient-education initiatives, and organizations serving people navigating healthcare decisions.

When the Process Doesn't Work as Represented

Helps participants respond when the process they were told to follow does not produce the expected result. Participants learn how to distinguish policy, procedure, and actual practice; document discrepancies; identify oversight; verify proposed solutions; and determine when another mechanism may be necessary.

• Best for: Individuals and caregivers navigating complex systems, disability organizations, community groups, healthcare consumers, and professionals who support systems navigation.

Health Insurance Without the Confusion

Explains common health-insurance terms, responsibilities, costs, and questions in practical language so participants can better understand and use their coverage.

• Best for: Libraries, community organizations, employers, young-adult programs, caregiver groups, and organizations serving adults who want a clearer foundation in health coverage.

See the Program Before You Book

Request a Program

Organizations can use the Educational Program Request Form to share their audience, goals, preferred format, and anticipated date. 

AJL will recommend an appropriate existing program or determine whether a customized educational engagement is a fit.