Fostering partnerships between coalitions: An evaluation of the 3 City Substance Abuse Prevention Collaborative

In 2008, three city-based community coalitions in Massachusetts (the Collaborative), commenced a unique regional collaboration to decrease prescription drug and opioid use in their communities. Each community has established prevention coalitions committed to decreasing substance use. Substance use has been a notable problem in these communities, as documented in local youth survey data and a recent rise in the number of opioid overdoses. This project enabled a regional approach to enhance existing coalition's strategies. A principal purpose of this collaborative was to bring together substance abuse specialists from the three communities to foster effective, efficient partnerships among the coalitions.

The Institute for Community Health (ICH), a research organization dedicated to health improvement through community-based participatory approaches, worked with the Collaborative to develop an evaluation plan that utilized mixed methods to evaluate the multiple strategies the project undertook.

While there were various evaluation components, a foremost area was the collaborative building process itself. The partners sought to understand 1) challenges in developing partnerships among coalitions; 2) factors facilitating the Collaborative's work; and, 3) perceived benefits of the collaboration.

Surveys, adapted from the Wilder Collaborative Survey, were used to assess perceptions of the efficiency, successes and challenges in the collaborative process. Members of the leadership team completed the survey at three points during the 12-month grant period.

Lessons learned from the evaluation findings serve to enlighten other city-based coalitions seeking to engage in regional strategies—particularly with a focus on collaboration. These findings can inform methods to initiating and sustaining collaborative efforts.