The Utah Health Department, in seeking to address the increasing and alarming rate of STDs in Youth, developed a community coalition on May 13, 2009 joining a diverse set of organizations in a partnership to prevent STDs in Youth.  These groups represented the full spectrum of a value stream: from the conservative Eagle Foundation to the more liberal Planned Parenthood, from church groups to teachers and social service workers.  A united and cooperative coalition emerged in a gathering that was carefully designed to foster collaboration across differences through inquiry and a broad-based focus on a shared and common outcome and value.

The Department of Health contracted with Colette Herrick of Insight Shift, Inc to deliver this program. Cheri Torres of Collaborative by Design worked with Colette to intentionally design a 1-day event that would generate collaborative action. In order to ground the day’s conversations and planning, the 60 attendees first learned of important data and demographics that would open the possibilities for directed action. They were briefed on a variety of statistics and local data which revealed the incidence of STDs among different populations (e.g. homeless, prisons, street address, schools, age groups, and gender).

Following this, participants engaged in one-on-one interviews to surface current successful efforts in the community, best practices, and visions for working together to have a positive impact on the whole community. These interviews were followed by small group discussions and large group interaction that allowed the group to develop (1) a framework for their Collaborative Coalition:

• Design structures for the collaborative action
• Ideas for the vision, mission and principles for collaborating
• Ideas for communication strategies
• Commitments to behaviors to foster positive relational dynamics

(2) A set of principles and ideas that formed the foundation for their projects and programs working with youth and STDS:

• Core factors for successful prevention
• Trends and opportunities
• Ideas for future action

Before the day was over, this motivated group of people had developed action areas, prioritized them, and outlined future actions along timelines. These are their areas for immediate focus:

• Screening and Testing
• Policy Issues
• Our Utah Collaborative Coalition
• Integrating STD and Unintended Pregnancy
• Increased Testing Among Young Men
• Community-based Education

Participants aligned around their own interests and passions for action.  You can learn about the progress this group is making at their website.

If you have collaborative efforts to decrease the incidence of STDs in youth going on in your community, please post what you are learning about collaboration that is supporting your success.