Identifying the Role of Community Partnerships in Creating Change to Support Active Living

This study of the community partnerships funded by Active Living by Design (ALbD) explores which structures and functioning contributed to success and which presented challenges. It finds no single partnership model is best: the partnership must fit the initiative and community.

The ALbD initiative funded 25 community partnerships across the U.S. from 2003-2008; these partnerships were charged with using five “community action” strategies to change environments and policies to make it easier for people to lead active daily lives. Part of a three-year cross-site evaluation started in Year Three of ALbD funding, this paper specifically examines the partnerships’ structures and functioning to identify which contributed to or hindered success. Data was gathered through interviews with key individuals, focus groups, a partnership survey, and the ALbD Progress Reporting System.

Key Findings:

  • For success, partnerships should include a broad range of members, including policy and decision makers with the know-how to change environments and policies, and community representatives who can ensure efforts are well-suited for their community and who can lead and champion grassroots support and engagement.
  • Performance improves when partnerships tend to the partnership itself, building capacity related to leadership, advocacy, group management, assessment, and action planning. 
  • Challenges to performance include mobilizing community members, and maintaining long-term community engagement.
  • The research “somewhat uniquely” finds that “contextual factors,” such as the community’s history with previous partnerships and the inequitable distribution of community resources, influence a partnership’s success.

This study observes that there is no one partnership model that leads to success. To be successful, a partnership should fit the initiative and, in particular, take into account the history of collaboration within its particular community.

 

American Journal of Preventive Medicine Presents the Evaluation of RWJF's Active Living by Design Program

  1. 1. Lessons from a Mixed-Methods Approach to Evaluating Active Living by Design
  2. 2. Capturing Community Change
  3. 3. Identifying the Role of Community Partnerships in Creating Change to Support Active Living
  4. 4. Assessment for Active Living
  5. 5. Evaluation of Physical Projects and Policies from the Active Living by Design Partnerships
  6. 6. Programs and Promotions: Approaches by 25 Active Living by Design Partnerships
  7. 7. Active Living by Design: Sustainability Strategies
  8. 8. Concept Mapping: Priority Community Strategies to Create Changes to Support Active Living
  9. 9. Evaluation of Active Living by Design
  10. 10. Evaluation Results from an Active Living Intervention in Somerville, Massachusetts
  11. 11. Bike, Walk, and Wheel
  12. 12. A Walking School Bus Program
  13. 13. Creating a Moment for Active Living via a Media Campaign
  14. 14. Isanti County Active Living
  15. 15. Using a Bicycle-Pedestrian Count to Assess Active Living in Downtown Wilkes-Barre
  16. 16. Active Living by Design's Contributions to the Movement
  17. 17. Healthy People and the Design Sciences
  18. 18. Active Living by Design and Its Evaluation
  19. 19. A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of School-Based Active Living Programs

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