University of Pittsburgh
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. * Coaliti…
Catalyzing Communities is a coalition-centered implementation-support platform that includes facilitated coalition convening, group model building, technical assistance, and seed funding. The platform supports shared systems understanding, identification of action opportunities, selection of an evidence-informed strategy, action planning, and early coalition-led implementation. Activities may be delivered virtually or in person and continue across the active intervention period.
FICAS is a multicomponent implementation intervention delivered as an augmentation to Catalyzing Communities. It includes five strategies: using roster and network data to strengthen committee representation and connectivity; identifying and engaging influential or bridging coalition members; progressively assembling and reviewing research, practice, community, and policy evidence; using structured criteria and deliberation to select an evidence-informed strategy; and monitoring coalition network data to guide adaptations. Components are delivered at relevant milestones across evidence review, strategy selection, and early implementation.