Chase Reece, BSHP '24

During my time in the office today, I finished updating the onboarding presentation for new hires at Archway. One of the things I came across during this that I found most interesting was the collaboration continuum. The collaboration continuum is a process model that Archway uses to build community trust and reduce turf battles. Ultimately, establishing trust within a community can be a lengthy process at first, but it is a top priority. Building trust is important for all community health and public health interventions, especially when working with disadvantaged and underserved populations. The collaboration continuum builds trust by networking and collaborating with community members and making decisions that benefit the entire community through consensus. There are five steps within the collaboration continuum: networking, coordinating, cooperating, collaborating, and collective impact. Each step is intentional and a significant amount of time is dedicated to each. Within the Archway Partnership, networking is given the first nine months of establishing a new relationship with a community. On the other hand, the collective impact is often not reached until seven years and is a decades long commitment. This timeline shows just how dedicated the Archway Professional and community members must be to accomplishing their shared vision.