Measuring the sustainability of a community safety promotion network: working from the inside out

Abstract

Mackay Whitsunday Safe Communities (MWSC) was developed using a capacity building model that consciously attempted to design sustainability into the network. Our aim was to quantify the flow of resources used by MWSC to implement and sustain its injury control activities. Resource exchange among network members was quantified and analysed using social network analysis. In 2004, MWSC accessed an estimated 6.5 full-time staff equivalents and $0.9 million. However, these resources were largely accessed externally. The linking relationships that connected MWSC to its external support network, more than half of which were maintained by six broker network facilitators, were the critical social asset used to access resources and sustain network productivity. The sustainability of this network and arguably similar safety promotion networks is vulnerable to the changing priorities of external sponsoring agents and highly dependent on its leaders who facilitated access to the resources it required to remain productive.

Working From the Inside Out

“…their network connections to good effect, facilitating 52% of the in-kind investment, 54% of human investment, and 66% of the financial investment in MWSC (Hanson et al, 2012).…”

“…Wasserman and Faust (1994) suggest four theoretical principles that distinguish SNA from other research paradigms: This pattern of relationships can be studied at individual (e.g., the average number, closeness, and type of relationship), interpersonal (e.g., whether relationships are confined within a social group or connect different groups), or the community/ societal levels (e.g., the density of relationships and clustering of actors which measure the cohesion of a social system, or the extent to which relationships are channeled through central actors or groups of actors who consequently have increased opportunity to facilitate or gate-keep the exchange of information and resources). SNA therefore provided a promising methodology to assess the ecological function of MWSC (Hanson, 2007;Hanson et al, 2008;Hanson et al, 2012). An important implication of McLeroy et al's (1988) ecological model is that MWSC was embedded in a wider ecological system.…”

“…Societal influences (e.g., social norms, government policy, external investment) may reinforce or constrain what can be achieved at a community level. Accordingly a snowballing method (Atkinson & Flint, 2001; Scott, 2000) was used to identify all relationships maintained by members of MWSC with both internal and external partners (Hanson et al, 2012).…”

“…The exchange of financial resources within Mackay Safe Community and its external support network in 2004(Hanson et al, 2012).Source. © 2012 International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion.…”

The evolution of multiagency partnerships for safety over the course of research engagement: experiences from the NoGAPS project

“…Multilevel approaches are particularly important when designing and implementing prevention strategies,10 including those for injury prevention 39 11 Partnerships need to be sustained to ensure long-term injury prevention gains 12. However, research into which features of partnerships are most likely to achieve sustainability is scarce.…”