A METHODOLOGY FOR MONITORING AND EVALUATING COMMUNITY-HEALTH COALITIONS

Community coalitions are prominent mechanisms for building local capac ities to address health and social concerns. Although there are case s tudies and descriptive reports on coalitions, there is little empirica l information about coalition process and outcome. This paper describe s a case study using a methodology for monitoring and evaluating commu nity health coalitions. Data are fed back to coalition leaders and mem bers, funding agents, and other relevant audiences as part of the deve lopment process. The monitoring system provides data on eight key meas ures of coalition process and outcome: the number of members, planning products, financial resources generated, dollars obtained, volunteers recruited, services provided, community actions and community changes . Illustrative data are presented for two different community health c oalitions. Finally, challenges and opportunities in evaluating communi ty coalitions are discussed.