Section 5. Coalition Building I: Starting a Coalition

Often, community problems or issues are too large and complex for any one agency or organization to tackle. In these circumstances, putting together a coalition of groups and individuals can be an effective strategy for changing the programs, policies, practices, and conditions - in schools, business, government, and other relevant sectors - that are needed to solve the problem or achieve the goal. This section discusses what a community coalition or partnership is, why and when it can be a good strategy, who should be included, and how to implement it.

What is a coalition?

In simplest terms, a coalition is a group of individuals and/or organizations with a common interest who agree to work together toward a common goal. That goal could be as narrow as obtaining funding for a specific intervention, or as broad as trying to improve permanently the overall quality of life for people in the community. By the same token, the individuals and organizations involved might be drawn from a narrow area of interest, or might include representatives of nearly every segment of the community, depending upon the breadth of the issue.

Coalitions may be loose associations in which members work for a short time to achieve a specific goal, and then disband. They may also become organizations in themselves, with governing bodies, particular community responsibilities, funding, and permanence. They may draw from a community, a region, a state, or even the nation as a whole. Regardless of their size and structure, they exist to create and/or support efforts to reach a particular set of goals.

Coalition goals are as varied as coalitions themselves, but often contain elements of one or more of the following:

• Influencing or developing public policy, usually around a specific issue.
• Supporting changes in behavior and the conditions that influence behavior (reducing smoking or harmful substance use, for instance).
• Building a healthy community. This term generally refers both to the community's physical health (which may include not only medical and preventive or wellness services, but the environment, community planning, housing, food security, substance use, and other factors) and its social and psychological health (encompassing diversity, education, culture and the arts, violence prevention, youth development, employment, economic development, mental health and other human services, etc.).

Why start a coalition (and why might it be difficult)?

There are a number of reasons why developing a coalition might be a good idea. In general terms, it can concentrate the community's focus on a particular problem, create alliances among people and organizations that might not normally work together, and help coordinate the community's approach to issues.

Some more specific reasons for forming a coalition might include:

• To address an urgent situation. The youth violence example that introduces this section is a good illustration of this reason.
• To strengthen the ability of community members - or the community as a whole - to shape its future. This may mean addressing the place of youth in the community, for instance, or looking at economic development in light of globalization and community resources.
• To actually obtain or provide services. It may take a coalition - either initially or over the long term - to design, obtain funding for, and/or run a needed intervention in the community.
• To bring about more effective and efficient delivery of programs and reduce unnecessary duplication of effort. Gathering all the players involved in a particular issue can result in a more cohesive and comprehensive intervention. Rather than unnecessarily duplicating their efforts, organizations can coordinate responsibilities in ways that expand access to programs and allow for a greater variety of services.

• To pool resources. A number of organizations and individuals together may have the resources to accomplish a task that none of them could have done singly. In general, people and organizations join coalitions to do just that - accomplish together what they cannot alone.
• To increase communication among groups and challenge stereotypes and assumptions. Bringing together groups and individuals from many sectors of the community can create relationships where there was little contact before. Working together toward common goals can help people understand one another better, build trust, and reduce barriers.
• To renew the energy of people and organizations that have been trying to do too much alone. A coalition can help sustain efforts around an issue. For people who've worked too long in isolation, the addition of other people, ideas, and resources can be a tremendous source of new energy and hope.
• To plan and launch community-wide initiatives on a variety of issues. In addition to addressing immediately pressing issues or promoting or providing services, coalitions can serve to unify efforts around long-term campaigns in such areas as smoking cessation, community economic development, or environmental preservation.
• To build collective influence and advocate for services or other benefits for the community. A coordinated community coalition can advocate for the area more effectively than a number of disconnected groups and individuals working alone. A broad coalition can bring together relationships, knowledge, constituencies, and public support from many sectors of the community.
• To create long-term, lasting social change. Meaningful change usually takes place over time through people building trust, sharing ideas, addressing differences, and working on the underlying conditions connected to community needs. A coalition, with its structure of cooperation among diverse groups and individuals and its problem-solving focus, can support and sometimes accelerate this process.

Barriers to starting a coalition

There are often barriers to starting a coalition, and it's important to be aware of and anticipate them, because they may influence the process the coalition will have to follow in order to begin successfully. Among the most likely:

• Turf issues. Organizations may be concerned about sharing responsibilities, relationships with participants, recognition, information, or funding. Part of the work of starting a coalition may be showing how collaboration can benefit participating organizations while better addressing their common goals.
• Past harm/missteps. Organizations, individuals, or the community as a whole may have had experiences in the past that have convinced them that working with certain others - or working together at all - is simply not possible. A new coalition may have to acknowledge and address this history before it can effectively begin the work it needs to do.
• Domination by professionals, officials, or other participants with greater institutional influence. Agency staff with advanced degrees, local politicians, business leaders, and others may unintentionally dominate discussion or decision-making because they are more accustomed to formal meetings or hold greater organizational authority. A coalition should make meaningful participation possible for the people most affected by the issue and ensure that professional or institutional expertise does not override lived experience and community knowledge.

• Poor links to the community. A first step may have to be developing relationships among agencies, organizations, and the broader community where strong connections do not already exist.
• Minimal organizational capacity. It might be necessary to find a coordinator, or for one or more individuals or organizations to share responsibility for organizing the new group, if it is to develop beyond - or even as far as - a first meeting.
• Funding. The difficulty of finding funding is an obvious obstacle. Less obvious are the dangers of funding that pushes the coalition in a direction that does not fit community priorities or requires it to act too quickly to address the issue effectively. New coalitions should remain alert to funding possibilities while also considering the conditions, expectations, and potential effects of the funding they accept.
• Failure to develop and share leadership within the coalition. Coalitions demand a very special kind of collaborative leadership. If that leadership isn't available and can't be developed from within the coalition, its effectiveness and sustainability may be at risk. It may be useful to bring in an outside facilitator and/or provide training in collaborative leadership.
• The perceived - or actual - costs of working together outweigh the benefits for many coalition members. The task here may be to find ways to increase benefits and reduce unnecessary burdens for the individuals and organizations involved if the coalition is to survive.

If you understand the potential barriers to forming a coalition in your community, you can plan for them and increase your chances of success.

When should you develop a coalition?

A coalition needs to have a purpose if it is to be successful. As discussed above, the purpose may be broad or narrow, but it's unlikely that a diverse group will come together unless there's a reason to do so. At particular times, circumstances help to move the formation of coalitions.

When dramatic or disturbing events occur in a community.  In a town of 6,000 in western Massachusetts, four women were murdered by their domestic partners in a space of less than a year. These murders spurred the formation of a coalition to address not only domestic violence, but the broader issue of violence against women, as well as related community concerns such as drug dealing and the responsiveness of the courts.

When new information becomes available. The latest unemployment figures may show that the community's unemployment rate is rising rapidly, motivating the formation of a coalition to deal with economic development. A new study may alert a community to the fact that Black men - a significant part of its population - are experiencing a disproportionately high burden of heart disease, and community members and health providers may respond by forming a coalition to improve prevention, access to care, screening, treatment, and the social and environmental conditions that influence health.

When circumstances or the rules change. After the state passed welfare reform legislation, an already economically depressed rural county found itself faced with the prospect of helping a large number of people receiving public assistance transition into employment within a limited period. As a result, the local public assistance office, the local branch of the state employment agency, and several other agencies that worked with people receiving public assistance and their families formed a coalition to try to respond to the situation.

When new funding becomes available. A new Request For Proposals (RFP) from a state agency or other source of funding may require a coalition to obtain funding for a particular service, or a coalition may form in order to create a comprehensive proposal that coordinates resources and services across the community.

When there's an outside threat to the community. Communities have formed coalitions, for instance, to influence decisions about hospital ownership or closure; to oppose industrial developments they believe could harm community health or the environment; and to preserve open space from development.

When a group wishes to create broad, significant community change. Sometimes a problem or issue is so complex and deeply rooted that meaningful improvement requires changes in policies, systems, relationships, resources, and community conditions. In that situation - again, the Pryorville youth violence problem is an example - a broad coalition may be necessary to involve the people and sectors affected by the issue and address it on several levels.

When you have not only a good reason for starting a coalition, but also the possibility that one can be started successfully in the community. This is an extremely important issue, one that is dependent upon a number of factors:

• Is the issue or problem clear enough that people can find sufficient common ground to work together? Participants do not necessarily have to agree on every aspect of the issue or its solution, but they need enough shared understanding to begin working toward common goals.
• Is there at least some level of trust among the individuals and organizations who'd make up the coalition? Community history, or the history of particular organizations, may present what seem to be insurmountable barriers to the formation of a coalition. Community divisions along racial, ethnic, class, religious, or political lines; old feuds; turf battles among agencies; or past failed coalition efforts may mean that a great deal of groundwork has to be done before the community is willing to consider the possibility of a coalition. It may take a long time to build up trust to that point.

• Is a coalition in fact the best response to the issue? Assuming that neither issue definition nor mistrust is a problem, there is still the possibility that most people will not see a coalition as the most effective way to handle the situation, and they may be right. Some questions should be considered before you try to start a coalition:
  • Can the issue be better addressed if the people and organizations concerned are working together, and will a coalition help accomplish that purpose?
  • Will a coalition increase the likelihood that the important factors affecting the issue are identified and addressed?
  • Will a coalition increase the coherence, strength, and effectiveness of the community's response to the issue?
  • If the community already has a number of coalitions, is yet another the best response to this issue, or could the work be incorporated into an existing structure?

A coalition is most likely to form and endure when there is both a meaningful reason to work together and enough willingness, trust, and capacity to begin.

Who should be part of a coalition?

In general, coalitions benefit from broad and relevant participation, but simply having more members is not always better. The important question is whether the coalition includes the people, organizations, perspectives, and decision makers needed to understand the issue and act effectively.

Stakeholders.

These are the people who have a stake in the coalition's work. They can include:

• Those most affected by the issue. These may include current or potential participants in programs, people who lack access to such basic needs as health care or adequate housing, people with particular health conditions, or - in the case, for instance, of many environmental and public health issues - the community as a whole. People whose lives are directly affected should have meaningful opportunities to participate in decisions about the issue.
• Formal and informal helpers, those charged with carrying out community functions related to the issue, and others affected by what the coalition might do. The staffs of health and human service providers or other organizations and community agencies, police, school personnel, the probation and court system, local employers, landowners - some or all of these and/or many others may be directly or indirectly involved in the results of coalition initiatives.

Community opinion leaders.

It can be extremely useful to include people who are trusted or influential within different parts of the community. Clergy, business or civic leaders, neighborhood leaders, or people who are simply highly credible in the community may fall into this group.

How do you start a community coalition?

So...you've decided a coalition is indeed the way to go in your community. How do you actually go about starting one?

Put together a core group.

You're probably already not alone in your concerns about the issue at hand, and you may already have a core group - a few individuals or organizations - ready to work at forming a coalition. If not, your first step is to find and make contact with several individuals and organizations closely connected to the issue.

Some reasons why a core group, rather than an individual, should lead the effort:

• A core group will have more contacts and more knowledge of the community than a single individual.
• It can give the idea of a coalition more credibility among potential members.
• It can make finding and reaching potential members a much faster process.
• A core group allows people to share the work of organizing the coalition.
• It demonstrates that interest in the effort extends beyond a single individual or organization.

There are a few ways to approach assembling a core group:

• Start with people you know. If you're a longtime activist on this issue, or if you've been living or working in your community for a while, you may already have contacts among others concerned with the same things you are. Use those relationships either to invite people into the core group or to identify others who might participate.
• Contact people in agencies and institutions most affected by the issue. Pryorville Youth Services, in its drive to start a coalition on youth violence, went to both the Chief of Police and the Superintendent of Schools for support. As a result, a Community Affairs officer and an Assistant Superintendent both became part of the core group that set out to put the coalition together.
• Talk to influential and well-connected people throughout the community. These may be business or civic leaders, community members with strong relationships and credibility, or people whose work connects them with many sectors of the community.

Identify the most important potential coalition members.

Especially if your coalition has a narrow and time-limited purpose, there are probably people or organizations whose participation will be particularly important. It's useful to identify them and make a deliberate effort to involve them. That may mean arranging a personal meeting, explaining why their perspective matters, and asking what would make meaningful participation possible for them.

Most of these individuals and organizations are referred to in "Who should be part of a coalition?" above, but each community is different. In yours, there may be a specific community member, organization, public official, or institution whose participation is particularly important because of its knowledge, relationships, authority, or connection to the issue. The core group may already know these people or know someone who can make an introduction.

As mentioned earlier, none of this is to say that you shouldn't recruit many other people and organizations to your coalition as well. It simply means that you may need to make a special effort to involve some participants whose perspectives, authority, or relationships are particularly important to the coalition's work.

Recruit members to the coalition.

Now that your core group is in place, and you've identified potential members who are especially important to the coalition's success, you can start recruiting members. Although it's important to start with the individuals and groups mentioned above, you'll probably want participation to be as broad and relevant as the issue requires.

Use the networking capacity of your core group to the fullest. The core group can brainstorm a list of possible members, in addition to those already identified as especially important. Then each member can identify people on the list whom they know personally or organizations where they have a contact. Remaining contacts can be divided among members of the core group.

There are, obviously, a number of ways to contact people and organizations, including:

• Face-to-face meetings
• Phone or video calls
• E-mail
• Personal letters
• Mass mailings or e-mail lists
• Public Service Announcements, community media, or social media
• Flyers and posters

Direct personal contact is often especially effective for people whose participation is important or where trust needs to be built. Other communication methods can help reach larger numbers of people more efficiently. The best approach depends on the community, the relationship, accessibility needs, and the amount of time available.

Be sure to ask those you talk to for suggestions about other potential members, and, when appropriate, ask them to make an introduction. That can spread out the work and may give the invitation more credibility because it comes through an existing relationship. If you are successful, the network of possible members can expand far beyond your original list.

Plan and hold a first meeting.

The first meeting of a coalition is important. If it's an engaging and productive gathering that helps people see the value of participating, you're off to a good start. If participants leave confused about the purpose of the coalition or feel that their time was wasted, many may not return. It's up to the core group - in what may be the last official task it undertakes - to plan a meeting that gets the coalition started well.

There are really two concerns here: the logistics of the meeting (where, when, accessibility, how long, etc.) and the content of it.

There are a number of possibilities for the content of the first meeting. The agenda should depend on your particular issue and purposes, and on the needs of your community, but you'll probably want to include some of the following:

• Introductions all around. Everyone present should have an opportunity to briefly introduce themselves, the organization, if any, they're connected with, and the nature of their interest in the issue.
• Start defining the issue or problem around which the coalition has come together. This might mean the group developing an initial statement, or it might entail a discussion followed by a smaller group drafting a possible definition for review at the next meeting.
• Discuss the structure of the coalition. What kind of group will it be, how will decisions be made, how will leadership and coordination work, and what kinds of activities will it actually undertake? Is hiring staff a reasonable goal, either currently or eventually?
• At least start the process of creating a common vision and agreeing on shared values about the direction of the coalition. This is the first step toward developing the vision and mission statements that will define the coalition and guide its work.
• Discuss a procedure for forming an action plan. Again, this may result in an actual, or at least a preliminary, plan, or it may lead either to the appointment of a smaller group to draft a plan, or to the establishment of a procedure by which the larger group will generate a plan over a set period of time.
• Review the things to be done before the next meeting, and who has agreed to do them. It's useful for people to leave the first meeting knowing what progress was made and what comes next. If there are tasks being worked on and specific results expected at the next meeting - even if those results are simply statements or preliminary plans to review - members can see that the coalition is moving forward.
• Schedule at least the next meeting. It may be possible to develop a regular meeting schedule at this first meeting, or it may make more sense to schedule only the next meeting and wait until membership stabilizes before creating a long-term schedule.

Follow up on the first meeting.

You've held a successful first meeting - terrific! The job of building a coalition has only begun, however. First, you have to follow up to make sure that there will be a well-attended second meeting at which work can continue.

• Distribute the minutes or a meeting summary and reminders about the next meeting to those who attended, and send information to potential new members as well. Continue widening your network. Reach people you missed the first time and those whose names were suggested by participants.
• Follow up with the groups or individuals who are working on tasks identified at the first meeting. Offer help, connect them with others who have relevant skills or knowledge, and make sure barriers to completing the work are addressed.
• If there are committees or task forces forming, continue recruiting appropriate members for them. Much of the coalition's detailed work may happen in these smaller groups, so it is important that they include the knowledge, experience, and perspectives needed for the task.
• Keep looking for new coalition members and perspectives that may be missing.
• Keep track of the fundamental building blocks of the coalition that aren't in place yet. If the group hasn't yet decided on a structure or coordinating body, make sure the question remains active. If there's no movement on an action plan, determine what is needed to get the process going.

Next steps.

There are a number of specific things - some of which you've already started in that first meeting - that need to be done to make sure that the coalition keeps moving forward.

• Gather information. In order to plan for action, you need good information about the problem or issue and about the community. Organizations most involved with the issue may already have statistics, evaluations, community knowledge, or other information. The U.S. Census and American Community Survey can provide demographic, social, economic, and housing information, while local colleges, universities, public agencies, and community organizations may provide additional data and context. Combine quantitative information with the experiences and perspectives of people directly affected by the issue.
• Finish creating vision and mission statements. These can be developed in a small group after everyone has had input in a larger meeting, or generated through a participatory process involving the larger membership. It's important that there be broad understanding of and agreement with the intent of these statements because they will help define the coalition and guide its work over time.
• Complete an action plan. The coalition's action plan is intertwined with both its structure and its vision and mission. In practice, coalitions often start with a sense of what they need to do, and their structures, visions, and missions continue to develop as the group works together.
• Finish the work of designing a structure for the coalition. Again, this should be a shared task, with members having meaningful opportunities to contribute ideas. There is a broad range of possibilities here - from relatively informal coordination to a more formal governing structure - and the group should come up with a form that fits its purpose, size, values, and responsibilities. Once a structure has been agreed upon, there may still be a need for bylaws or other formal agreements.

• Elect officers, or a coordinating or steering committee. Once there's agreement about the structure of the coalition, members can decide whether they want some sort of governing or coordinating body and choose it through the agreed-upon process.
• Examine the need for paid or dedicated staff. Depending on the scope of its work plan, a coalition may feel that it needs staff - perhaps a coordinator - to be effective. If it has the resources, a community coalition may be able to hire a full- or part-time coordinator. Or it may identify the need and then seek resources. Member organizations, grants, local institutions, or other community partners may sometimes be able to support all or part of a staff position.
• Determine what other resources - financial, material, informational, relational, etc. - you need, develop a plan for getting them, and decide who's going to be responsible for carrying it out. If you already have funding for paid staff, resource development may be one of their responsibilities, or it may belong to a coalition committee or other designated members. Part of creating a strategic plan that encompasses your vision, mission, and action plan is identifying the resources you'll need to reach your goals and planning for how to obtain them.
• Start the hard work of maintaining the coalition over time. Once your coalition is a going concern, it still needs attention. After it's been around for a while and had some success, people may start to take it for granted, or longtime participants may become overextended or burn out. Careful maintenance, renewal of leadership, and continued recruitment are extremely important for the long term.

General guidelines for getting a coalition off the ground.

In addition to the specifics above, there are some more general elements to starting a coalition:

• Communicate, communicate, communicate. Make sure that lines of communication within the coalition and among the coalition, the media, and the community are open and accessible. Good communication helps people stay informed, understand decisions, coordinate their work, and know how to participate. Communication with the media and the broader community can also increase understanding and support for the coalition's work.
• Be as inclusive and participatory as you can. Work at making the coalition a group in which people from across the community can participate meaningfully, and continue inviting people after the first meeting. Try to involve members in generating vision and mission statements, planning, and major decisions. Pay particular attention to whether people most affected by the issue have real influence, rather than simply being present.
• Build and maintain relationships throughout the community. Try to involve, or at least keep informed, other groups whose work or constituencies connect with the issue. Let them know what you're doing, invite them to coalition meetings where appropriate, and create opportunities for them to participate. Strong relationships can expand the coalition's knowledge, reach, credibility, and connections to decision makers.
• At least at the beginning, set concrete and achievable goals that matter to the coalition's larger purpose. Visible progress can help members see that their work is worthwhile and build the experience, trust, and momentum needed to pursue longer-term goals.
• Be thoughtful and creative about meetings. Community activists and health and human service workers often spend a great deal of time in meetings. Meetings should therefore have a clear purpose and make good use of participants' time. Possibilities include rotating responsibility for meetings among coalition members; holding fewer full-coalition meetings and doing more detailed work in committees or task forces; incorporating learning opportunities; or using different formats to make participation more accessible and engaging.
• Be realistic, and keep your promises. If you're not sure you can do something, don't promise it. If you make a commitment, do your best to follow through and communicate early if circumstances change.
• Acknowledge diversity among your members, and among their ideas and beliefs. Your coalition may reflect the cultural, economic, racial, ethnic, religious, political, and other diversity of your community, and it will almost certainly represent a diversity of opinion. Not everyone will agree with everything the coalition does or wants to do, and minority perspectives may raise important concerns the majority has overlooked. Make space for disagreement and use diversity as a resource for better discussion and decision-making rather than treating it as an obstacle to unity.

• Recognize contributions and celebrate progress. In addition to progress itself, taking time to acknowledge people's work can strengthen relationships among members of a coalition. Whether through individual or group recognition, celebrations, reflection, or other events, acknowledging achievement can help sustain the coalition and remind people why the work matters.

In Summary

In situations where issues are too large and complex for a single organization to address, a coalition of groups and individuals working together may be the solution. A coalition can develop a coordinated response to an issue, improve service delivery, pool community resources, create and launch community-wide initiatives, build collective influence to shape policy, and work toward long-term social change.

Coalitions may form in response to:

• Significant or disturbing community events
• New information
• Changes in circumstances or regulations
• The availability of funding
• An outside threat to the community
• The need to create significant change in the community

Whatever the reason, coalitions are more likely to form and endure when there is a shared need or purpose, sufficient trust to begin working together, and meaningful opportunities for participation. They should include people affected by the work of the coalition and by the issue it addresses, along with relevant organizations, community leaders, policy makers, and other community members whose perspectives and resources can contribute to the effort.

To start a coalition, it's often useful to begin with a core group and work outward, bringing in the people and organizations necessary to understand the issue and act on it effectively. A productive first meeting at which participants begin building relationships, defining the issue, and establishing next steps can help launch the coalition successfully.

Even more important is following up before the second meeting to make sure that agreed-upon work is moving forward, participants remain connected, and additional members and perspectives continue to be added. Areas that must be addressed include:

• An agreed-upon definition of the issue or problem the coalition is addressing
• The creation of vision and mission statements
• The development of an action plan
• The design of a structure for the coalition
• The need for paid or dedicated staff
• Resources

Finally, you have to continue to pay attention to some general principles for forming and running a coalition:

• Communicate openly and accessibly with everyone
• Be inclusive and participatory
• Build relationships and networks throughout the community
• Set achievable goals that contribute to the coalition's larger purpose
• Hold purposeful and engaging meetings
• Be realistic about what you can do, and follow through on commitments
• Acknowledge and draw strength from the diversity of the group

A coalition can be a powerful force for positive change in a community. If you can build one that lasts, shares leadership, meaningfully includes the people affected by its work, and remains focused on the issues it was created to address, you've done a major piece of community building work.