ISQOLS 2026 Pre-conference Workshop:
"ACT (Activate, Connect, Transform): A Participatory Planning Method for Complex Interventions in Quality-of-Life Research and Practice"
Monday, August 10
1:30pm-5:30pm
Instructors:
Reza Yousefi Nooraie, PhD, MD, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Director of ACT Center.
Hossein Mousazadeh, PhD, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health Sciences- ACT Center & Flaum Eye Institute.
Workshop Description:
Quality-of-life and well-being challenges are often shaped by complex interactions across behavioral, social, organizational, environmental, and policy contexts. Interventions aimed at improving quality of life frequently involve multiple components, operate across socio-ecological levels, and require collaboration among researchers, practitioners, community organizations, and people with lived experience. However, planning these complex interventions can be difficult, particularly when teams must integrate diverse stakeholder perspectives, balance contextual realities, and translate broad goals into actionable implementation strategies.
This workshop introduces ACT (Activate, Connect, Transform), a structured and participatory planning method designed to support collaborative development of complex interventions and implementation strategies. ACT helps interdisciplinary teams identify and organize intervention priorities across behavioral, relational, organizational, and contextual domains; distinguish intervention functions from forms; and use structured dialogue to build shared understanding and actionable implementation plans. Drawing from implementation science, participatory design, systems thinking, and community-engaged planning approaches, ACT offers practical tools for organizing collaborative planning processes in complex real-world settings.
The workshop aligns with the 2026 International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies conference theme, “Beyond the Bluegrass: Harnessing Research to Enhance Quality of Life,” by focusing on how participatory and interdisciplinary planning approaches can strengthen the development and implementation of interventions intended to improve quality of life and well-being. Rather than positioning quality of life as a single outcome domain, the workshop recognizes that quality-of-life initiatives often involve interconnected challenges spanning health, housing, education, social participation, community engagement, and access to resources. ACT is particularly useful in these contexts because it helps teams navigate complexity, engage multiple stakeholders, and organize planning across socio-ecological levels.
The session will be highly interactive and experiential. Participants will work in small interdisciplinary groups on sample quality-of-life intervention challenges such as supporting community participation for people with disabilities, improving access to culturally responsive behavioral health supports, or strengthening community partnerships that address social determinants influencing quality of life and well-being. Using the Functions and Forms Template, the ACT Wheel, and the ACT Radar, participants will identify dimensions of complexity, map intervention priorities across ACT domains, and reflect on how stakeholder perspectives shape planning and implementation decisions.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- · Differentiate intervention functions and forms within a complex intervention or implementation planning challenge.
- · Map intervention functions onto behavioral, relational, organizational, and contextual domains relevant to complex interventions.
- · Use the ACT Radar to prioritize domains and compare stakeholder perspectives in a structured participatory planning exercise.
- · Apply the ACT process to support participatory planning for a complex intervention or implementation strategy relevant to quality-of-life research or practice settings.
- · Identify strategies for facilitating interdisciplinary and community-engaged collaboration in complex intervention planning processes.
Workshop Agenda: Outline, Engagement Strategies, and Timing (3 Hours)
0–15 Minutes: Welcome, Framing, and Participant Connection
Introduction to workshop goals, presenters, and participant backgrounds. Participants briefly reflect on challenges related to planning and implementing complex interventions within quality-of-life and well-being research or practice settings.
Engagement strategies/tools: Facilitated introductions, reflective prompt, interactive discussion.
15–40 Minutes: Why Complex Interventions Relevant to Quality-of-Life Research Require Structured Co-Design
Short didactic overview of complexity in multi-component interventions and implementation strategies, including behavioral, relational, organizational, and contextual dimensions. Discussion of how interventions aimed at improving quality of life and well-being often involve multiple stakeholders and socio-ecological levels, followed by introduction to the ACT model and its three pillars: Activate, Connect, and Transform.
Engagement strategies/tools: Mini-lecture, facilitated discussion, real-world examples.
40–75 Minutes: Exercise 1, Identifying Functions and Forms
Participants work in small groups on a sample intervention challenge relevant to quality-of-life or well-being initiatives (e.g., reducing social isolation, improving community participation, strengthening access to supportive services). Using a structured worksheet, groups distinguish intervention functions from forms and identify key planning challenges.
Engagement strategies/tools: Small-group exercise, Functions and Forms Template, facilitator coaching.
75–90 Minutes: Debrief and Break
Groups briefly share insights, challenges, and observations from Exercise 1, followed by a short break.
Engagement strategies/tools: Cross-group discussion, report-out.
90–130 Minutes: Exercise 2, Mapping onto ACT Domains
Participants map identified intervention functions onto ACT domains and examine how behavioral, relational, organizational, and contextual considerations shape intervention planning and implementation decisions across complex settings.
Engagement strategies/tools: ACT Wheel, facilitated group application, collaborative mapping.
130–160 Minutes: Exercise 3, Prioritization and Stakeholder Alignment
Participants use the ACT Radar to prioritize domains, compare stakeholder perspectives, and engage in structured dialogue to refine and align their draft intervention or implementation strategy.
Engagement strategies/tools: ACT Radar, consensus-building exercise, facilitated dialogue.
160–180 Minutes: Reflection, Adaptation, and Application
Participants reflect on how ACT could be adapted within their own research, practice, organizational, or community-engaged settings and identify concrete next steps for application.
Engagement strategies/tools: Guided reflection, action-planning prompt, final Q&A.
