Perspectives of Community Partners and Researchers About Factors Impacting Coalition Functioning Over Time

Abstract

This study explored organizational and contextual factors impacting coalition functioning across 15 community–researcher coalitions that were formed to lower rates of HIV among youth. Mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative) longitudinal data were collected from both community partners and researchers across three time points, and were analyzed to assess factors associated with initial coalition development and functioning. Specific facilitators of coalition functioning over time included developing group trust and cohesion, creating diverse coalition membership, developing a shared vision, and ensuring clarity of coalition purpose and goals. Specific barriers to coalition functioning over time included experiencing a lack of clarity over member roles and responsibilities, balancing power/resource dynamics between researchers and community partners, balancing coalition building and coalition pace, and experiencing HIV/AIDS-related stigma. Recommendations are offered for how to develop and sustain successful community–researcher coalitions over time in order to address relevant social issues.

KEYWORDS:

• coalitions
• community
• development
• functioning
• HIV
• research
• sustainability
• youth

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Grisel M. Robles-Schrader

Grisel M. Robles-Schrader is currently affiliated with the Division of Adolescent Medicine in Pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco.

The Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions

The Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN) and Connect to Protect® were supported by grants U01 HD040533 and U01 HD040474 from the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development with supplemental funding from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse and Mental Health. Additional grants that supported this work at the ATN sites include: Children's Diagnostic and Treatment Center: U01 HD040476; Children's Hospital Boston; Children's Hospital of Los Angeles: U01 HD040463; Children's National Medical Center: U01 HD040562; John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County and the CORE Center: U01 HD040515; Montefiore Medical Center: U01 HD040499; Mount Sinai Medical Center: U01 HD040505; Tulane University Health Sciences Center: U01 HD040470; University of California at San Diego; University of California at San Francisco: U01 HD040506; University of Maryland: U01 HD040584; University of Miami School of Medicine: U01 HD040494; University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: U01 HD040481; University of Puerto Rico: U01 HD040490; and University of South Florida: U01 HD040497. The authors thank the investigators and staff of the ATN listed in Harper, Willard, and Ellen's (2012 [this issue]) “Connect to Protect®: Utilizing Community Mobilization and Structural Change to Prevent HIV Infection Among Youth” for their valuable contributions to this project.