Network-Based Support to Help Community Coalition Members Choose and Use Strategies to Improve Child Health

Pilot Trial of Network-Based Implementation Strategies to Increase Coalition Adoption and Early Implementation of Evidence-Informed Strategies for Child Health

Community coalitions bring together residents and organizations to improve child health, but they may need support to identify and put research-supported strategies into practice. This study will examine whether a program called FICAS can be delivered successfully and is useful to coalition members. FICAS uses information about relationships within a coalition to help involve people with relevant perspectives, share evidence, compare possible strategies, make decisions, and adjust support as the coalition's work develops.

Three community coalitions will participate. All three will eventually receive Catalyzing Communities, a program that provides facilitated meetings, collaborative planning, technical assistance, and funding for coalition-led action. One coalition will begin the program later, one will receive Catalyzing Communities alone, and one will receive Catalyzing Communities with FICAS. The study will help determine whether FICAS and the study procedures should be refined and tested in a larger study.

Inclusion Criteria

Coalition-level criteria

• Coalition focuses on child health, childhood obesity prevention, healthy eating, active living, nutrition security, policy, systems, or environmental change, or related community health priorities.
• Coalition works in or serves a community experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage.
• Coalition has multisector participation.
• Coalition has identifiable leadership or backbone capacity to participate in the study.
• Coalition is willing to participate in study procedures and data collection and accept randomized coalition-level assignment.
• Coalition has a feasible membership roster or is able to work with the study team to construct one and has an identifiable leadership contact.
• Coalition can support participant recruitment and scheduling without coercing individual participation.

Individual-level criteria

• Age 18 years or older.
• Coalition member, leader, staff member, partner, changemaker, committee or core-group participant, named network connection, survey-only participant, invited guest, or other adult with relevant community, organizational, policy, professional, or implementation expertise or connections.
• Able to provide informed consent.
• Able to participate in English.
• For direct committee or core-group participants, able to participate through the internet, telephone, or another study-supported mode.
• Willing to complete the study activities applicable to the participant's role, which may include meetings, surveys, network assessments, or interviews.

Exclusion Criteria

Coalition-level criteria

• Coalition is unable to participate in required study activities.
• Coalition lacks a feasible membership roster or the ability to construct one with study-team assistance, or lacks an identifiable leadership contact.
• Coalition is unwilling to accept randomized coalition-level assignment.
• Coalition is participating in a comparable formal coalition intervention that would prevent interpretation of the study findings.

Individual-level criteria

• Younger than 18 years.
• Unable to provide informed consent.
• Unable to participate in English.
• Does not have an eligible coalition, professional, community, organizational, policy, or implementation role, expertise, or connection.
• For direct committee or core-group participants, unable to participate through an available study-supported mode.
• Participation would create an unmanaged conflict or undue pressure that cannot be resolved.