Sustainability of Community Coalitions: An Evaluation of Communities That Care

Abstract

The relationships between community coalition processes during initial 3-year state seed funding and markers of sustainability post-funding were investigated in 20 Communities That Care (CTC) sites in Pennsylvania. Coalition processes were assessed using interviews with coalition members, ratings from the research team and ratings from state technical consultants. We found members' knowledge of prevention, coalition internal functioning, and fidelity to the CTC model during early coalition functioning predictive of later sustained coalition board activity. Findings suggest domains of early coalition functioning that may be important for understanding and promoting sustainability.

Sustaining Community-University Partnerships: Lessons learned from a participatory research project with elderly Chinese

“…Public health literature examines sustainability mostly from the viewpoint of maintaining specific health programs, such as health initiatives, or retaining knowledge, capacity and values generated from the collaboration (Bryant 2002;Israel et al 2006;Paine-Andrews et al 2000;Shediac-Rizkallah & Bone 1998). Less attention is given to sustaining the partnership itself (Gomez, Greenberg & Feinberg 2005;Israel et al 2001), and investigating partnership sustainability through empirical evidence is also not granted the attention it deserves (Israel et al 2001). A few studies have examined theoretical perspectives of sustainability.…”

Challenges and Facilitating Factors in Sustaining Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships: Lessons Learned from the Detroit, New York City and Seattle Urban Research Centers

“…Sustainability has been discussed in the public health literature in terms of both partnerships, 30,32,33 and specific health programs or interventions. [34][35][36][37][38] Sustainability depends on numerous factors that impact the formation and maintenance of CBPR partnerships for which a considerable literature exists.…”

“…14,[16][17][18][19]21,22,[25][26][27][28][29] In contrast, issues related to the long-term sustainability of partnerships and activities have received limited attention. [30][31][32] The purpose of this article is to examine the experiences and lessons learned from three Urban Research Centers (URCs) in Detroit, New York City, and Seattle, which were initially established in 1995 with core support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The experience of these Centers after core funding ceased in 2003 provides a case study to identify the challenges and facilitating factors for sustaining partnerships and their activities.…”

Using Community-Based Participatory Evaluation (CBPE) Methods as a Tool to Sustain a Community Health Coalition

“…Coalition infrastructure, including staffing, board functioning, technical assistance, transparency, and effective leadership, contributes heavily to sustainability (Feinberg, Bontempo, & Greenberg, 2008;Gomez, Greenberg, & Feinberg, 2005 …”