Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114836

Debbie Shrem, MPH and Jen Bolcoa, MSW. Environmental Health Investigations Branch, California Department of Health Services, 151 Clay Street, #1700, Oakland, CA 94612, 510-622-4455, dshrem@dhs.ca.gov

Organizations, agencies, and institutions realize that partnership-building is a critical component for leveraging scarce economic resources. In California, people with asthma have benefited from local collaborative efforts that address a range of key issues, but no statewide partnership connected local efforts together. In May 2004, the Department of Health Services created California Asthma Partners (CAP), a statewide effort designed to link local coalitions, NGOs, agencies, and institutions together. CAP's ultimate goals are to ensure that the Strategic Plan for Asthma in California is successfully implemented, and that asthma stakeholders coalesce into a strong and influential voice in California. From the beginning, CAP has carefully worked to build a sustainable structure that will outlast its current funding cycle. During this session, we will discuss how CAP, with almost 250 members organizations, maintains its cohesive structure even in a state as large, both in population and geography, as California; key activities that motivate and mobilize our partners; and critical trust building activities that foster collaboration among disparate, and sometimes competing, organizations.

Learning Objectives: By the end of this discussion, attendees will

• understand how to utilize technology to maintain communication with, and cohesion among, partners outside of local geographic regions
• Identify key activities for sustaining active collaboration
• Learn what statewide partnerships can accomplish and what is better left to local or regional organizations/partnerships

Keywords: Asthma, Partnerships

Related Web page: www.asthmapartners.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.