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Reframing Coalitions as Systems Interventions: A Network Study Exploring the Contribution of a Youth Violence Prevention Coalition to Broader System Capacity

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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

This longitudinal research conceptualizes community coalitions as events in local intervention systems (Hawe et al. in Am J Commun Psychol 43(3–4):267–276, 2009). It explores the potential contribution coalitions make, through the collaborative activities of their members, to the broader intervention systems in which they are embedded. Using social network analysis, it examines patterns of structural change in a network of 99 organizations focused on youth violence prevention (YVP) over a 5-year period in which 30 of the 99 organizations were involved in a local YVP Coalition. Both longitudinal modeling and cross sectional analyses are used to examine change in system capacity—strong interorganizational networks—related to patterns of network density, centralization, and hierarchy. Somewhat surprisingly, the study found that capacity in the broader YVP Intervention System actually diminished during the 5-year period of the coalition’s operation, though part of the system—the sub-network that made up the YVP Coalition—was marginally strengthened. In this case, therefore, the evidence suggests that power and relational resources in the broader YVP Intervention System were redistributed. The article explores how the definition of capacity related to density and hierarchy may be contextually dependent. Implications for the role of coalitions in building system capacity are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the faculty and graduate students who were part of the NUPACE research team. I would also like to thank Beth Shinn and Doug Perkins for their insightful comments and feedback on this manuscript. Finally I would like to acknowledge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the generous support that made this research possible (Cooperative Agreement Number U49 CE001091-03 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control). This manuscript’s contents are solely my responsibility and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC or the views of members of the NUPACE research team.

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  1. Department of Human and Organizational Development, Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Peabody 90, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Kimberly D. Bess

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  1. Kimberly D. Bess
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Correspondence to Kimberly D. Bess.

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Bess, K.D. Reframing Coalitions as Systems Interventions: A Network Study Exploring the Contribution of a Youth Violence Prevention Coalition to Broader System Capacity. Am J Community Psychol 55, 381–395 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-015-9715-1

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