Network-Based Support to Help Community Coalition Members Choose and Use Strategies to Improve Child Health

Summary

Community coalitions bring together residents and organizations to improve child health, but they may need support to identify and put research-supported strategies into practice. This study will examine whether a program called FICAS can be delivered successfully and is useful to coalition members. FICAS uses information about relationships within a coalition to help involve people with relevant perspectives, share evidence, compare possible strategies, make decisions, and adjust support as the coalition's work develops.

Three community coalitions will participate. All three will eventually receive Catalyzing Communities, a program that provides facilitated meetings, collaborative planning, technical assistance, and funding for coalition-led action. One coalition will begin the program later, one will receive Catalyzing Communities alone, and one will receive Catalyzing Communities with FICAS. The study will help determine whether FICAS and the study procedures should be refined and tested in a larger study.

Conditions

• Childhood Obesity
• Evidence-Based Practice
• Food Systems
• Food Policy

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Catalyzing Communities

Catalyzing Communities is a coalition-centered implementation-support platform that includes facilitated coalition convening, group model building, technical assistance, and seed funding. The platform supports shared systems understanding, identification of action opportunities, selection of an evidence-informed strategy, action planning, and early coalition-led implementation. Activities may be delivered virtually or in person and continue across the active intervention period.

BEHAVIORAL

FICAS Implementation Intervention

FICAS is a multicomponent implementation intervention delivered as an augmentation to Catalyzing Communities. It includes five strategies: using roster and network data to strengthen committee representation and connectivity; identifying and engaging influential or bridging coalition members; progressively assembling and reviewing research, practice, community, and policy evidence; using structured criteria and deliberation to select an evidence-informed strategy; and monitoring coalition network data to guide adaptations. Components are delivered at relevant milestones across evidence review, strategy selection, and early implementation.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Pittsburgh

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Travis R Moore, PhD · University of Pittsburgh

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

NONE

Model

SEQUENTIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2027-01-31

Primary Completion

2028-06-30

Completion

2029-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations