A Qualitative Study of the Activities and Outcomes of Domestic Violence Coordinating Councils

Abstract

Efforts to promote systems change frequently involve the creation of councils, coalitions, and other collaborative settings. However, research, to date, reports limited empirical evidence that they achieve desired outcomes (Roussos and Fawcett, Annu Rev Public Health 21:369-402, 2000). The precise nature of this evidence base has received less attention. In particular, formal investigations into council effectiveness (a) rarely highlight the specific nature of collaborative efforts; (b) emphasize fairly distal markers as the "gold standard" for effectiveness; (c) focus largely on formative "outcomes" (e.g., action plan quality); and (d) utilize primarily quantitative research approaches. The current study extends previous research by employing a qualitative approach to investigate the particular activities and proximal outcomes of 41 domestic violence coordinating councils. Study findings suggest that councils engage in six primary activities: discussing issues, sharing information, identifying weaknesses in the system's response, providing training for key stakeholders, engaging in public/community education, and lobbying key stakeholders who are not council members. Three proximal outcomes were consistently identified in council efforts: the promotion of knowledge, relationships, and institutionalized change. Attending more directly to proximal outcomes and concrete activities in our research has important implications for conceptualizing and researching the effectiveness of councils and collaborative settings.

Coordinated community response components for victims of intimate partner violence: A review of the literature

“…Below we briefly outline the individual components of a CCR to IPV. Because coordinating councils have been reviewed elsewhere (e.g., Allen, 2006; Allen, Watt, & Hess, 2008; Javdani & Allen, 2011), these organizations will not be reviewed here.…”

Relating Coalition Capacity to the Adoption of Science‐Based Prevention in Communities: Evidence from a Randomized Trial of Communities That Care

“…While there are core components of CTC that each coalition is expected to implement, there are many choices that coalitions make during implementation. Some CTC coalitions may be more successful at science-based prevention as a result of ways in which their coalitions are structured, function as a team, or develop member or organizational capacities (Florin et al 2000; Roussos and Fawcett 2000; Allen et al 2008). To improve the effectiveness of community coalitions in their prevention work, we need to understand how coalitions differ in their capacities and how these differences may impact their ability to achieve community-wide change.…”

“…Capacity is a term that is used to convey a dynamic, adjustable, and transferable nature of member and organizational characteristics (Butterfoss 2002; Foster-Fishman et al 2001). Understanding the relationship between coalition capacities and outputs such as the adoption of a science-based approach to prevention is important for improving the work of coalitions (Florin et al 2000; Roussos and Fawcett 2000; Allen et al 2008). Building coalition capacities is an important step in a sequential process through which successful coalitions affect community change (Florin et al 2000).…”

“…However, disaggregating knowledge from skills may reveal important distinctions. For example, coalition members have ranked the benefits of knowledge acquisition higher than skill building (Kegler et al 2005), and coalition chairs and coordinators have judged knowledge acquisition as more strongly related to effectiveness and success (Allen et al 2008; Mizrahi and Rosenthal 2001). Although both knowledge and skills are theorized to be important, knowledge seems to be differentiated from skill building in the eyes of practitioners, and their independent impacts on community change have not been as carefully studied.…”

Examining Multi‐Sector Community Collaboratives as Vehicles for Building Organizational Capacity

“…As a result, researchers and practitioners are increasing their focus on the intermediate outcomes accomplished by these entities, such as shifts in the environment or broader community system (e.g., Allen et al 2008). This study makes an important contribution to this area of inquiry by expanding our understanding of the potential intermediate outcomes achieved by community collaboratives.…”