A Model-Driven Approach to Qualitatively Assessing the Added Value of Community Coalitions

Abstract

Community-based coalitions are commonly formed to plan and to carry out public health interventions. The literature includes evaluations of coalition structure, composition, and functioning; evaluations of community-level changes achieved through coalition activities; and the association between coalition characteristics and various indicators of success. Little information is available on the comparative advantage or "added value" of conducting public health interventions through coalitions as opposed to less structured collaborative mechanisms. This paper describes a qualitative, iterative process carried out with site representatives of the Controlling Asthma in American Cities Project (CAACP) to identify outcomes directly attributable to coalitions. The process yielded 2 complementary sets of results. The first were criteria that articulated and limited the concept of "added value of coalitions". The criteria included consensus definitions, an organizing figure, a logic model, and inclusion/exclusion criteria. The second set of results identified site-specific activities that met the definitional criteria and were, by agreement, examples of CAACP coalitions' added value. Beyond the specific findings relevant to the added value of coalitions in this project, the use of a social ecological model to identify the components of added value and the placement of those components within a logic model specific to coalitions should provide useful tools for those planning and assessing coalition-based projects.

Mobilizing Community Resources to Enhance Postdischarge Support for Breastfeeding in Massachusetts (USA)

“…Butterfoss and Francisco 13 described 3 levels of coalition evaluation: (1) measures of coalition infrastructure, function, and procedures; (2) indicators of the extent to which interventions and activities are carried out and reach the target populations; and (3) outcomes involving health and community change. Herman and colleagues 14 built on this work to create the Added Value Model of Community Coalitions that qualitatively assesses the effect of the collaborative effort across the multiple levels of the socioecological model of influence. The added value approach provides a way to track changes in infrastructure (process-related changes as opposed to patient outcomes) that are difficult, but critical, to include as part of changing health behaviors that involve multiple levels of socioecological factors.…”

Evaluation Methods Commonly Used to Assess Effectiveness of Community Coalitions in Public Health: Results From a Scoping Review

“…Kowalsczyk, Randolph, and Oravecz (2017) similarly described the role of progress reports in documenting PSE change in ten coalitions focused on women' s health. Herman et al (2011) evaluated the logic model and progress reports of seven asthma coalitions to operationalize the "added value" that the coalitions generated. The following coalition actions and outcomes were identified as valuable: professional development of individual members, institutional changes within member organizations, resources leveraged or generated by coalition, coordination or linkages with nonmember organizations, institutional changes by non-member organizations, and legislation, ordinance, or regulation change.…”

Conceptual Framework of the Controlling Asthma in American Cities Project

“…It was written as a resource to inform the decision making of government agencies, community groups, program managers and funders of complex community-based interventions. The paper on the added value of coalition by Herman et al 24 tests the assumption that implementing projects through coalitions yields benefits beyond what can be achieved by single organizations or through other methods of collaboration. It focuses on the dynamic aspect of the program theory by documenting increased linkages among health systems, community-based organizations, schools, and other institutions; changes within institutions; achievement of policy changes; and HERMAN S12 empowerment of community members to sustain interventions and influence their local social, political, and cultural contexts.…”