TOWARD A SOCIAL ECOLOGY OF COMMUNITY COALITIONS

This article is guided by several premises. First, community coalition s fit with a social ecology perspective of health promotion because th ey work with multiple domains and promote community change. Second, th e community context affects the functioning of coalitions. Third key l eaders are an important part of the social fabric of a community and i nfluence the social ecology of a community; therefore a coalition shou ld include key leaders and influence them and their organizations. The purpose of this article is to advance an understanding of the social ecology of coalitions by describing concepts, variables and results fr om two national studies and by providing anecdotal evidence and a meas ure of key leaders from our own work. After briefly defining and descr ibing community coalitions, we: (1) review literature on contextual va riables and community coalitions, (2) provide examples of contextual v ariables influencing community coalition development, and (3) discuss the relationship of key leaders in multiple domains and community coal itions. The article concludes with a discussion of the need for a fram ework of contextual variables and a promising next step.