Building a Coalition to Support Viral Hepatitis Elimination: Planning, Implementation and Evaluation Toolkit

Community lead coalitions are key to advancing viral hepatitis elimination goals and ensuring that voices with lived experience are uplifted. The purpose of this toolkit is to help guide jurisdictions in organizing, supporting, and growing viral hepatitis coalitions that are community-oriented and effective in developing, implementing, and evaluating a viral hepatitis strategic plan. The toolkit poses questions related to coalition purpose, structure and responsibilities for jurisdictions to consider; while providing insights from jurisdictions that have already started their coalition. Additionally, this toolkit serves as a primer to the elimination and/or strategic planning process and how health departments can guide their coalitions from planning to implementation and evaluation. 

This toolkit is joined by a variety of resources to assist jurisdictions in fostering their coalitions and developing elimination plans. The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has provided meeting planning tools. These resources also include a listing of jurisdictional viral hepatitis elimination plans and past Virtual Learning Collaborative sessions on coalition building and elimination planning. 

Managing Power Dynamics Within the Coalition

NASTAD has recently developed an appendix to this toolkit, "Managing Power Dynamics Within the Coalition." The appendix outlines the different coalition structures and how viral hepatitis programs can equitably share power with community organizations, people with lived experience, and advocates. Additional resources are provided on conflict resolution and developing a power analysis to examine power dynamics within the coalition. This new resource builds on this foundation and continues to support viral hepatitis staff in developing lasting partnerships by further exploring the inherent power differences between health departments and community organizations and providing strategies to mitigate the negative consequences of these dynamics.