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Table 2 Description of Contextual Domains

From: How does community context influence coalitions in the formation stage? a multiple case study based on the Community Coalition Action Theory

Domains

Explanation of domain

Example quote

History of collaboration

Prior experience of coalition members in working together and with others in the community. Includes both organizational collaboration and interpersonal networks and relationships.

"It's usually the same agencies, and that primarily is because, well one, they're the ones willing to play together, and two, they're the agencies in the community that have administrations that's willing, able to sit at a table and put together a proposal or something."

- Local coordinator

Community politics and history

Formal and informal divisions, factions and groups within the community, and how these groups interact--or do not interact--with one another. History refers to community-wide shared events that occurred before the coalition began, particularly large events that shaped or influenced the community.

This used to be a stage road, and the stages used to get robbed, and ever since then, we've had a bad reputation. [...] Everybody around here who, needed to look down on someone, whoever those folks were, this was the place they talked about and it probably got a worse reputation than it deserved.

-Focus group of coalition members

Community norms and values

Social norms, beliefs, and values prevalent in the community.

"One of the norms is sort of the ferocious independence. It's not very easily breached....If I was going to kind of put one overarching goal on everything that we've done funded by whoever, it's that we're trying to create a community that has the attitude and awareness that we're all responsible for all of our children, and we're going to do as good a job as we can, so those norms and community values have been very challenging, and are being slow to change but are and will."

-Local coordinator

Community demographics and economic conditions

The educational, racial/ethnic, and socio-economic makeup of the community. Also includes factors related to the local economy, such as employment opportunities and business presence within the community.

"I think that the economy seems to have a lot to do with the problems that we have. The people that we're working with are, to a large extent, they're economically depressed."

- Local coordinator

Geography

Conditions that result from the community's geography, particularly differences observed between urban and rural communities. Also includes issues related to how the CHCC community is situated within a larger county or metropolitan area.

"I think one of the weaknesses here of living in this particular town is, that we, geographically speaking, we're like a forgotten town, because anything that comes our way never gets here. Because we're at the end of --- County and --- County, everything just travels in that direction and the other direction, not in between. And I have seen that, I have seen that whenever we get something started, it's really a struggle to keep it, and to get it. They don't really know we're here."

- Coalition leader