Coalition-Building in American Indian Communities

October 13, 2011 Albert Gay, M.S.

Objectives

• To define “coalition”

• To explain the purpose of a coalition

• To list community groups that should be “at the table”

• To identify barriers and plan around them

• To improve coalition recruitment and retention

How Do You Define a Coalition?

CADCA defines coalitions as a formal arrangement for collaboration between groups or sectors of a community, in which each group retains its identity but all agree to work together toward a common goal of building a safe, healthy, and drug-free community.

Here’s What Coalitions are NOT:

• Not human service organizations

• Not single entities

• Not run by outside organizations

Purpose of Coalitions

• To serve as catalysts for change in the community

• That goal often includes one of the following: • Adapting, creating, or developing public policy

• Influencing the community’s behavior

• Creating a healthy community

Here’s What Coalitions Do:

• Connect with their community members on a grassroots level.

• Collaborate on problem-solving and community development.

Here’s Why Coalitions Form

• To address an urgent situation demanding action

• To acquire or provide services

• To deliver effective and efficient practices, policies, and programs

Here’s Why Coalitions Form (cont’d.)

• To provide resources

• To facilitate communication among groups

• To strategically plan community-wide initiatives

Here’s Why Coalitions Form (cont’d.)

• To foster leverage within the community

• To create and sustain social change

Coalitions & The Public Health Model

• This model requires coalitions to think in a comprehensive manner beyond the part of the problem they see.

Host

Environment Agent

Coalitions & The Public Health Model (cont’d.)

• Problems arise through the relationships and interactions among the agent, the host, and the environment.

Host

Environment Agent

The Influence of Coalitions

Influencing the HOST

Reaching people directly through schools, social programs, workplaces, daycare centers, religious organizations, and other groups.

Influencing the AGENT

Working to diminish impact of the substance.

The Influence of Coalitions (cont’d.)

Influencing the ENVIRONMENT

Reinforcing healthy behaviors in schools, families, neighborhoods, and communities, as well as broader social and cultural settings.

Risk & Protection

• Identifying and understanding the risk and protective factors in your community provides a solid base from which to begin planning.

• An important goal of prevention coalitions is to change the balance so protective factors outweigh risk factors.

Risk Factor Domain Protective Factor

Poverty (-) Community Strong Neighborhood Attachment (+)

Who Should Be at the Table?

• Youth

• Parents

• Businesses

• Media

• Schools

• Youth-Serving Organizations

• Law Enforcement

• Faith-based Community

• Civic and Volunteer Groups

• Health Care Professionals

Who Should Be at the Table? (cont’d.)

• Schools

• Youth-Serving Organizations

• Law Enforcement

• Tribal, State or Local Agencies

• Other Organizations Reducing Substance Abuse

Youth: Positive Peer Groups

Potential Benefits• Insight into youth’s

perspectives

• Youth involved in planning

• Youth ownership in initiatives

• Youth as volunteers

• Youth as leaders

• Direct influence of youth

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls• Transportation to

meetings

• Tokenism

• Keeping engaged

Parents

Potential Benefits• Big stakeholders in the

well-being of youth

• Important feedback on successes or failures of initiatives

• Volunteers

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls • Transportation

• Keeping them interested

• Busy schedules/work hours conflict with meetings

Local Business

Potential Benefits• Financial support

• Fiscal management expertise

• Strategic plan development

• Managerial expertise

• Opportunity to interact with MBE/WBE

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls• Decisions based on

finances outweigh decisions for the good of the community

• “Business mindset trumps coalition heart”

• MBEs are often small, and owners only have time to run business

Media

Potential Benefits• Getting message out

• Multiple avenues of dissemination

• Expertise on message delivery

• Exposure increases recruitment

• PSAs

• Provision of expertise in:

• Media Advocacy

• Social Marketing

• Issue Framing

Potential Barriers/pitfalls

• Sensationalism overshadows prevention message

Schools

Potential Benefits• Access to school youth

• School data for assessment

• Valuable staff insight

• Ease of school engagement

• Community planning from school perspective

• Bridge between families and coalitions

Potential Barriers/pitfalls• Isolation

• Preoccupied with trying to achieve State standards

• No volunteers to commit to coalition duties

• Protection of school reputation

• Little to no sharing of data or info

Youth-Serving Organizations

Potential Benefits• Access to youth

• Expertise in youth development and programming

• Youth recruitment for coalition

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls• Organizations may be too

busy with youth programming to be productive in coalition matters

• Too much dependence on organization’s youth

• Competing interests cause conflict

Law Enforcement

Potential Benefits• Key resource in fulfillment

of strategy

• Enforcement of policies and laws

• Police image improved throughout community

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls• History of mistrust / bad

relations

• Officers live outside community

• No positive relationships with residents

• Focus more on punishment than prevention

Faith-Based Organizations

Potential Benefits• Visionary leadership

• Inspirational leadership resulting in momentum

• Ready volunteer base

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls• Involvement contingent

upon agreement with religious standards

• Outspoken spiritual views may offend some coalition members.

• Diverting attention from common cause to personal belief debates

Civic Groups

Potential Benefits• High visibility in community

• Community service initiatives

• Volunteer base

• Strategies for raising awareness in community

• Donations towards coalition cause

• Reach out to local businesses/gov’t. for policy shaping around ATOD

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls• Potential conflicting

message during social events (i.e., serving of alcohol)

Health Professionals

Potential Benefits• Access to community-

specific information

• Voice of authority on health matters

• Respect gained from community

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls• Lack of consistency due

to time constraints

• Rotating staff to meetings as representatives

Tribal, State or Local Governmental Agencies

Potential Benefits• Expertise on local

government

• Policy-making for coalition’s favor

• Key stakeholder in the city

• Amped-up voice for under-represented minority populations

• Media coverage

• Leadership

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls• Political one-sidedness

• Political suicide

• Getting tied to politician’s views & political agenda

• Loss of coalition’s voice by adhering to politician’s views

• Dominance of government

• Loss of vision for political gain

• Falling for politics as usual

Other Organizations

Potential Benefits• Extremely close to heart

of community

• Previous community action

• Involvement in other community coalitions

Potential Barriers/Pitfalls• Spread too thin between

coalition and other community involvement

Barriers & Pitfalls Activity

1. Split into groups.

2. Look at the sectors around the room.

3. Determine which sectors are missing & which are present in your coalition.

4. Instruct each group to gather at a different sector.

Barriers & Pitfalls Activity (cont’d.)

5. If a sector is missing, write BARRIERS keeping them from being at the table.

6. If a sector is present, write current or potential pitfalls that impede progress in the coalition’s goals.

7. After 1 minute, rotate clockwise to the next sector

8. After final rotation, return to seats as a group and fill out the following matrix for missing sectors only

Activity: Recruiting Sectors

Serve: What

can we do to

benefit them?

Receive: How can they help us?

Which person or position do we need

from that sector?

What role do

we want

them to take in

the coalitio

n?What’s the

Buy-in?

Breaking Through Barriers

Activity• Look at your starting sector

and the listed barriers.• Discuss/write ways to

overcome barriers discussed using action plan.

Beyond Barriers Action Planning

Identified or Potential Barrier:(From Group Discussion)

Action Step: Desired Outcome

Required Resources

Responsible Party

Time Duration

1.

2.

3.

4.

How Can We Recruit These Missing Sectors?

• Create a Marketing Plan that:

• Is Sector-Specific

• Culturally

• Politically

• Acknowledges Barriers

• Is Strategic in Placement

• Accurately Displays Goals

• Mutually Beneficial

• Product is the goal of the campaign. It is the behavior we would like the focus audience to change or maintain.

• Price is what the people in the focus audience must give up in order to receive the program’s benefit.

35

4 P’s Marketing

• Promotion is the overall strategy (messages) used for persuading people to accept the price for the product.

• Place is the communication channel that will be used to get the promotional message to the focus audience.

4 P’s Marketing (Cont’d.)

4 P’s Marketing Activity

• What media will you use to reach this sector?

• What will this sector need to commit to the coalition?

• How will you promote to this sector?

• What are you producing in the community?

Product

Promotion

Place

Price

Building Blocks of Coalitions

1. Relationship

2. Dedication

3. Trust

4. Shared Knowledge

5. Leadership

6. Assessment

(Doherty, 2000; Perkins, Borden, and Knox, 1999; Thompson et al., 2003)

Relationships

• They are the cornerstone for networking &

collaborative agreements

• They take time! 

• They require repeated conversations and

frequent occasions for working / planning

together.

• They help shared visions and common

purposes emerge. Perkins, D. E, Borden, O., & Knox, A. (1999)

Dedication

• Long-term dedication among staff members

• It takes time for leaders from the different organizations to count on one another to supply needed services

• It takes time for people to recognize that they are not in competition

• It often takes a long time for change and transformation to occur in distressed communities.

Doherty (2000)

Trust

• Facilitates communication

• Creates a willingness and commitment to identify with the collaboration

• Nurtured when members together produce written mission, expectations, and terms for exchanging resources. 

(Perkins, Borden, & Knox, 1999).

Trust (cont’d.)

• Cultivated & maintained through constant communication:

• a constant exchange of information

• not one-sided

(Perkins, Borden, & Knox, 1999).

Shared Knowledge

• Knowledge of the community’s history, its strengths, and its needs is a vital element

• (i.e. demographic information, suggestions etc.)

• Involves building a deeper, common understanding. 

• Buried, unacknowledged memories of past resentments and/or of injustices negatively affect current efforts to work together.

(Thompson et al. 2003)

Leadership

• Strong leadership is required to move the cooperating organizations toward shared goals and objectives

• Successful collaborative leaders focus on intentional and goal-directed relationship-building

• Don’t forget about your Champions!

Perkins, D. E, Borden, O., & Knox, A. (1999)

Assessment

• Ongoing process of assessment is always present in successful networking.

• It’s the vehicle through which networks maintain and reinforce their shared visions and mission.

• It provides clarity about how success will be measured is essential to the network’s health. 

Perkins, D. E, Borden, O., & Knox, A. (1999)

SWOT Analysis Exercise

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

Negative (-)

Internal

Positive (+)

External

Coalition Building/Action Planning

Affected Sector: Youth Parents Businesses Media Schools Youth Servicing

Orgs Law

Enforcement Religions/FBO Civic/Volunteer Healthcare

Field Government Other

Organizations

Identified Pitfall:(From Group Discussion)

Building Block to use:1. Relationship 2.Dedication 3.Trust 4.Shared Knowledge 5.Leadership 6.Assessment

Action Step:

(Including persons responsible and duration

Desired Outcome

Required Resources

Responsible Party

Time Duration

1.Example: Youth Tokenism Leadership Coalition structure redesigned so that

Youth are involved in planning process and included in voting process.

Form Youth Committee

Change in Coalition Policy,, Bylaws, structure.

Youth considered an important part of coalition.

Policies, By-Laws

Time

Executive BoardYouth members

Youth and Coalition Members

4 Weeks

Next Mtg

Maintaining a Healthy Coalition Using the 6 Elements

Building Blocks

Steps Needed to Sustain Building Blocks

Desired Outcome Resources Required

Responsible Party

Time Frame

1.Relationship

2.Dedication

3.Trust

4.Shared Knowledge 5.Leadership

6.Assessment

Coalitions do more than bring people together: They bring systems together!

• The Paradigm shift of

Leadership: understanding

that Prevention is Community

Leadership

• Bringing systems together

that normally may have

functioned on their own

(independently)

• SAMHSA has greatly helped

coalitions by creating a

prevention platform as a tool.

References

•          Doherty, W. (2000). Family science and family citizenship:

Toward a model of community partnership with families. Family

Relations, 49 (3), 319-325.

• Perkins, D. E, Borden, O., & Knox, A. (1999). Two critical

factors in collaboration on behalf of children, youth, and families.

Journal of Family and Consumer

Sciences, 91 (2), 73-78.

• Thompson, M. et al. (2003). Facilitators of well-

functioning consortia: National health start program lessons.

Health & Social Work, 28 (3). 185-195.