Promoting Community Coalition Functioning: Effects of Project STEP

There has been relatively little research on effects of interventions aimed directly at improving internal community coalition functioning, particularly in the area of planning for adoption of evidence-based prevention programs. The current study investigated the effect of Project STEP, a prevention diffusion trial, on three factors hypothesized to improve coalition prevention planning (quality of coalition plans, extent of plan implementation, and committee internal functioning in meetings). Cities were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (televised training with limited technical assistance, televised training alone, or control; n = 24). Results demonstrated that at 1.5 year follow-up, coalitions in the two intervention groups showed more effective prevention plans, plan implementation, and functioning in meetings than control coalitions. Group differences were maintained at 3-year follow-up, albeit at decreased levels, for quality of planning and implementation. The findings suggest that building coalition capacity to diffuse evidence-based prevention programs works at least partially by increasing the effectiveness of coalition functioning, and that booster training may be warranted within 3 years after initial training.