Developing Effective Coalitions: An Eight Step Guide

The Eight Steps to Effective Coalition Building is a framework for engaging individuals, organizations and governmental partners in addressing community concerns. The complete document offers concrete steps towards building effective partnerships, and provides tips for making collaborations and partnerships work. Rather than creating new projects or programs, effective coalitions can harness existing resources to develop a unique community approach and achieve results beyond the  scope of one single institution or organization.

Increasingly, the problems that communities need to resolve are complex, requiring comprehensive solutions. Addressing issues like health promotion and chronic disease prevention requires the inclusion of people from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. Working in partnerships, collaborations, and coalitions can be challenging-- but these can be powerful tools for mobilizing individuals to action, bringing community issues to prominence, and developing policies. In addition, these associations are an effective means of integrating health services with other human services, so that resources are not wasted and efforts are not needlessly duplicated.