The Process of Partnering with Community Members: Preliminary Findings

This brief presents lessons learned about the community partnership process from a series of interviews and a focus group with community members engaging in cross-sector collaboratives.

In July and August 2021, the Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) conducted interviews and a focus group with 15 community members who have participated in, and in some cases been affected by, collaboratives in their communities. The first goal of this work was to better understand community members’ experiences with collaboratives. The second goal was to build relationships with community partners and to build experience that may be helpful to GHPC, our community partners, and others in future community partnerships. This brief addresses this second goal by presenting lessons learned about the community partnership process, itself, and was reviewed and revised in partnership with the participants.

Aligning Systems for Health: Health Care + Public Health + Social Services, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and managed by the Georgia Health Policy Center, is focused on learning from stakeholders across the nation about effective ways to align these three sectors to better meet people’s goals and needs.