This webinar focuses on building effective coalitions and partnerships for building healthy communities. We all spend too much effort in time-consuming and ineffective coalitions. We know what makes collaborative solutions work. This workshop will explore the six key principles for building effective collaborative solutions and provide participants with stories and tools for the creation of effective collaborative solutions.

Takeaways:

• Will learn the six key principles for building effective collaborative solutions;
• Will examine the barriers to success;
• Demonstrate successful examples of coalition building and community engagement;
• Examine how to engage those most affected by the issues you are working on;
• Explore key aspects of successful collaborative leadership;
• Participants will walk away with specific ideas on becoming a more effective collaborative leader and making their collaborative efforts more successful.

Tom Wolff, Ph.D. is a nationally recognized consultant on coalition building and community development, with over 30 years’ experience training and consulting with individuals, organizations and communities across North America. His clients include federal, state and local government agencies, foundations, hospitals, non-profit organizations, professional associations, and grassroots groups. Tom has published numerous resources to help communities solve their own problems. His most recent book is The Power of Collaborative Solutions – Six principles and effective tools for building health communities published by Jossey Bass-John Wiley in early 2010.His earlier writings on coalition building include From the Ground Up: A Workbook on Coalition Building and Community Development (with Gillian Kaye, 1997) and The Spirit of the Coalition (with Bill Berkowitz, 2000; American Public Health Association). He is passionate about looking at issues from a community perspective and empowering local communities to solve their own problems. His writings combine theoretical understanding with rich stories and on-the-ground experience. From 1985 to 2002, Tom Wolff founded and directed Community Partners, a technical assistance and training program in coalition building and community development affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Tom Wolff is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, which granted him its 1985 National Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Practice in Community Psychology and its 1993 Henry V. McNeil Award for Innovation in Community Mental Health. In 2000, he received the For the People Against the Tide Award from Health Care for All for his “outstanding efforts to energize and educate local communities in areas of health care justice.” He has held academic appointments at the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health, the University of Massachusetts Medical School Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and Wellesley College’s Stone Center. He received his undergraduate degree from Clark University and his doctorate from the University of Rochester.

Tom Wolff & Associates is a nationally recognized consultant firm working on coalition building and community development, with over 30 years’ experience training and consulting with individuals, organizations and communities across North America. Clients include federal, state and local government agencies, foundations, hospitals, non-profit organizations, professional associations, and grassroots groups.