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Evaluating community partnerships and coalitions with practitioners in mind
Frances D Butterfoss1, Vincent T Francisco
1Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Section, Center for Pediatric Research, Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
Health Promotion Practice
|April 20, 2004
Summary
Effective community coalition evaluation requires assessing infrastructure, programs, and community health changes. Focusing on long-term, systemic impacts is crucial for sustainable health outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Community Health
- Public Health Policy
- Program Evaluation
Background:
- Community partnerships and coalitions are vital for public health initiatives.
- Effective evaluation is essential for the development and sustainability of these coalitions.
- Current evaluation practices may overemphasize short-term program outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To recommend a multi-level approach to coalition evaluation.
- To highlight the importance of assessing coalition infrastructure, programs, and community health changes.
- To address challenges in evaluating community-level and systemic impacts.
Main Methods:
- Proposes a three-tiered evaluation framework: coalition infrastructure, program activities, and community health status.
- Discusses the difficulties and necessity of measuring community-level and systems changes.
- Identifies challenges faced by coalition practitioners and evaluators.
Main Results:
- Recommends evaluating coalition processes, programs, and health status changes.
- Suggests that a focus on short-term program wins hinders long-term systemic and health outcome achievement.
- Emphasizes the critical, albeit difficult, nature of measuring community and system-level changes.
Conclusions:
- A comprehensive evaluation strategy must encompass infrastructure, programs, and broader community health impacts.
- Overcoming evaluation challenges is necessary for coalitions to achieve significant, lasting change.
- Practical resources are provided to aid coalition evaluation efforts.