Collaborative Partnerships at the State Level

Abstract

Reforms in the public health infrastructure such as those called for in recent Institute of Medicine reports require stakeholder engagement on different levels than traditional grass-roots community work. The Turning Point Initiative, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, involves 21 state-wide partnerships established for systems change and focused in specific areas of public health innovation and policy development. These partnerships represent a different model of strategic alliances and relationship-building than has been previously described in the literature on community-level and health-promotion collaborations. This article utilizes qualitative data to illustrate the ways in which state-level partnerships for systems change both confirm and extend previous models. Findings indicate that state-level public health partnerships share many of the challenges and opportunities of locally-based and health-promotion-oriented partnerships. Collaboration at the state level, however, involves more attention to organizational alliances, coordination of institutional change, and strategic responses to political changes. These partnerships depend on a combination of interpersonal skills, material resources, and organizational savvy to manage complex planning and implementation processes. Influencing policy development and organizational redesign in public health systems requires nuanced understanding of the opportunities provided by various kinds of organizational partners.

Leadership Disparities in State Governmental Public Health Workforce: Examining the Influence of Gender

“… 2 Second, research has shown that institutions with women leaders are more likely to work collaboratively with others, which has been found to be vital for governmental public health agencies. 11 – 13 …”

Strategies to Build Readiness in Community Mobilization Efforts for Implementation in a Multi-Year Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative

“…The readiness assessment also highlighted that current and existing TPP efforts were fragmented and could benefit from a unified leadership structure. A clear leadership structure is critical for partnerships to function well [16,17]. To ensure that efforts were aligned and unified, Youth First developed and implemented strategies to promote local leadership and build community infrastructure to support collaboration.…”

Active Living Collaboratives in the United States: Understanding Characteristics, Activities, and Achievement of Environmental and Policy Change

“…Collaboratives use different tactics and activities in varying degrees to advance their agendas. These tactics and activities serve multiple purposes: 1) elicit local knowledge to inform the design and implementation of strategies; 2) motivate core partners and the broader community of practitioners and citizens to get involved; 3) raise awareness about the problems being addressed and the need for change at multiple levels; and 4) align group-specific political and policy priorities (19,30,31). Needs assessments are unique in their ability to engage partners, policy makers, elected officials, media, and community members in agenda-setting and planning processes and create community awareness and buy-in (32,33).…”