What do community coalitions need to be effective policy, systems, and environmental change agents?

Determinants of health include policies, systems, and environments (PSE) that are designed to influence health behaviors. Little is known about designing capacity building trainings for community coalition members engaged in PSE change processes. This presentation will describe the quantitative and qualitative results of a survey completed by 75 individuals from 39 community coalitions in South Carolina involved in PSE change for healthy eating, active living, and tobacco-free living. Community coalitions' capacity levels and desired areas to increase capacity will be discussed related to policy advocacy, media advocacy strategies, community organizing, evaluation, needs assessments, and leadership. Results highlighted areas identified by community coalitions of needed priority and challenges related to planning and/or implementing PSE changes. Briefly, we found that a majority of community coalitions reported capacity building needs in developing funds outside of grants (76.9%), collecting data to prove a need exists (57.7%), and in aspects of community organizing, including social media advocacy (68.6%), emailing campaigns (56.9%), and legislative visits (43.1%). Survey results were used to design capacity building institutes. PSE change requires different skills and approaches than traditional public health programming, and systematic capacity building efforts are needed to prepare the new public health workforce. This presentation is likely to provide insights into designing and implementing capacity building trainings and can serve as a model for other communities interested in engaging in PSE changes.