Keeping the Momentum Alive Formally-organized coalitions have a governing board that establishes policy and generates funds. To maintain credibility, the board's composition should represent all community segments the coalition wishes to embrace. Once the board is established, a common practice is to form committees to oversee the coalition's projects. Tasks can be allocated among committees that enlist the help of additional participants. There is yet to be a collaborative effort that functions perfectly, but there is encouragement.
Collaboration is a new growth area that is stimulated the more it is practiced.
Once agencies decide to work together, they also must agree on whether their coalition will be primarily cooperative or collaborative in nature. A collaborative strategy is where the need and intent is to change the way services are designed and delivered throughout the system. In communities not yet ready for collaborative partnerships, initiatives to coordinate existing services offer a reasonable starting point for change. Service and system collaborations differ radically. Designed to address immediate needs and to improve tangible services, service collaborations chart more circumscribed, easily-accomplished tasks than those generally undertaken by system collaborations.