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Cultivating capacity: outcomes of a statewide support system for prevention coalitions.

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Cultivating capacity: outcomes of a statewide support system for prevention coalitions.
Authors: Mitchell RE (AUTHOR), Stone-Wiggins B (AUTHOR), Stevenson JF (AUTHOR), Florin P (AUTHOR)
Source: Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community. 2004, Vol. 27 Issue 2, p67-87. 21p.
Subject Terms: *Communities, *Health promotion, Coalitions, Public health, Social support, Technical assistance
Abstract: Although community coalitions are an increasingly popular mechanism for attempting to change community-wide health, the empirical evidence has been mixed at best. Technical Assistance (TA) efforts have emerged in greater scale in hopes of improving both programming quality as well as the coalition structures supporting such programs. However, this commitment to TA interventions has outstripped our knowledge of optimal ways to deliver such assistance, and its limitations. This study takes advantage of results from a state-wide technical assistance project that generated longitudinal data on 41 health-oriented coalitions. The following questions were addressed: What are the circumstances under which coalitions will utilize available assistance? What are the effects of technical assistance on intermediate community outcomes? The results suggested that coalitions with greater initial 'capacity' used more TA. Coalitions with low utilization mentioned difficulty in identifying their TA needs as the salient reason for not pursuing these resources. Over time, there were significant positive changes in coalition effectiveness as perceived by key informants, but these were not influenced by amount of TA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Education Research Complete
Description
Abstract:Although community coalitions are an increasingly popular mechanism for attempting to change community-wide health, the empirical evidence has been mixed at best. Technical Assistance (TA) efforts have emerged in greater scale in hopes of improving both programming quality as well as the coalition structures supporting such programs. However, this commitment to TA interventions has outstripped our knowledge of optimal ways to deliver such assistance, and its limitations. This study takes advantage of results from a state-wide technical assistance project that generated longitudinal data on 41 health-oriented coalitions. The following questions were addressed: What are the circumstances under which coalitions will utilize available assistance? What are the effects of technical assistance on intermediate community outcomes? The results suggested that coalitions with greater initial 'capacity' used more TA. Coalitions with low utilization mentioned difficulty in identifying their TA needs as the salient reason for not pursuing these resources. Over time, there were significant positive changes in coalition effectiveness as perceived by key informants, but these were not influenced by amount of TA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:10852352
DOI:10.1300/j005v27n02_05