Coalitions Implementing Systems Changes with Limited Resources

Introduction:The ultimate goal of substance abuse prevention coalitions is to bring about population-level behavior change and ecological theory proposes that since behavior is influenced at multiple levels, interventions must be broad-based, comprehensive and seek change at multiple levels (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Sorensen, Emmons, Hunt & Johnston, 1998). Roussos & Fawcett (2000) categorized coalition interventions based on their intensity suggesting that activities focused on individual-level change instead of community and systems-level changes are “weaker” in terms of their impact on community-level outcomes.

Coalitions must attune to the variety of resources (i.e., funding, staff, material) needed to sustain their coalition so that they are in existence long enough to bring about wide scale change. Roussos and Fawcett’s (2000) review of the literature indicates that coalition success at securing financial resources for its efforts may predict sustainability. However, coalitions vary in size from small to large (Butterfoss, 2007) and many have budgets of less than $200,000 (ONCDP, 2007; Foster-Fishman et al., 2008).

This poster session explores the relationships between coalition capacity (annual budget, paid staff and volunteers), coalition engagement in comprehensive community change strategies (both individual-level and environmental), and coalition facilitation of policy/practice or program changes.

Methods: CADCA’s Annual Survey of Coalitions is the primary data collection tool for this study. The survey has an annual participation of between 700 and 800 coalitions. Survey items include organizational characteristics (e.g., budget, size and scope), target community (e.g., rural vs. urban or economically disadvantaged), and comprehensiveness of prevention strategies. Using regression analysis we will calculate the amount of variance explained by our independent and dependent variables.  

Results: Preliminary findings from the 2013 survey indicate that 192 had an annual budget of $49,000 or less. With this modest budget coalitions are implementing a wide variety of behavior change strategies. For example, 73% engaged in policy change activities within the last 12 months. Further analysis of the dataset will be presented during this session.

Conclusions: Coalitions of varying budget sizes and resources are implementing a wide array of strategies to include environmental strategies. This study has important implications for coalition funding and sustainability.