Measuring collaboration across the Socio-Ecological Model

The results of this study are relevant as community-based interventions are being asked to increase collaboration but to also increase their interventions at the policy level.

For three years a community consortium in Luzerne County Pennsylvania (over 30 organizations)has been working to coordinate countywide interventions to address risk factors associated with obesity, diabetes, and asthma. The project is supposed to increase collaboration among providers and must address the risk factors across the five levels of the socio-ecological model. During this time the consortium members have been asked to report their level of active collaboration. A web-based quantitative survey is administered to all members of the consortium in November and a paper-based survey requesting qualitative data is administered in June of each year. The survey asks participants to rate their level of involvement with each of the organizations and ranks the levels of collaboration according to 5 levels of collaboration (Taylor-Powel).

Consortium members indicating an increased level of collaboration are contacted for a phone survey that collects data that classifies the type of collaborative activity according to the 5 levels of the socio-ecological model. The preliminary results show that the consortium has increased contact among the members but it has tended to be with interventions that address the individual or inter-personal levels. The initial results seem to conclude that organizations find it most difficult to reach higher levels of collaboration at the policy level interventions.