Using social network analysis to evaluate coalition building outcomes
Objective: Community Health Network Area 17 (CHNA 17) works to advance racial equity and mental health access across six cities/towns near Boston. The coalition’s evaluation efforts have revealed strong outcomes around training and capacity building of local service providers to identify and address barriers to mental health access for American-born Blacks. However, coalition leadership lacked a clear picture of outcomes in promoting cross-institutional learning and collaboration, one of the key pillars of its work.
Approach: As CHNA 17's evaluation partner, MXM Research Group launched a social network analysis to map connections between its 71 active member agencies. We mapped levels and types of collaboration and asked agencies to share the degree to which these relationships were developed or strengthened through their involvement in the coalition.
Result: The coalition’s steering committee has used the network map to discuss how strategic engagement with members will allow it to build on its mission and contribute to its sustainability goals. A second network survey is currently being conducted with results coming out in Spring 2020. This second round will serve to validate the baseline, and hopefully reflect outcomes of coalition building efforts adopted in recent years.
Learn more:
Join us at BARI 2020 on May 29. We’ll present this work on the week 6 panel: Strengthening the Commonwealth through Cross-Municipal Collaboration
