Synergies, partnership outcomes, and lessons learned: a qualitative evaluation of cancer center-coalition engagement

Background: Nine National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers received supplemental funding to expand community outreach and engagement activities through a partnership with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded comprehensive cancer control coalitions. This article reports on an evaluation of these awards focused on organizational relationships and partnership outcomes. Methods: The National Cancer Institute, community outreach and engagement, and coalition representatives co-designed the evaluation, which involved document review and 18 semistructured interviews with 16 community outreach and engagement and 19 coalition representatives. Artificial intelligence-generated interview transcripts were dual-coded in NVivo, version 20/R1, software. Results: The funding generated a diverse collection of projects and partnerships. Community outreach and engagement-coalition synergies and lessons learned were evident in the following domains: infrastructure; community and partner engagement; data monitoring; and intervention implementation, evaluation, and dissemination. Outcomes of this funding initiative were evident in the following domains: strengthened partnerships, expanded knowledge, improved health or health-care programs and policies, and thriving communities. Conclusions: Fostering community outreach and engagement-coalition partnerships created opportunities to use synergies and build capacity for engagement across multiple domains, contributing to enhanced trust and implementation of interventions across the cancer continuum. The findings provide examples and lessons on which cancer centers and coalitions can capitalize. Successful collaborative relationships were based on identifying shared goals and complementary expertise and roles, sharing financial and other resources, and a commitment to authentic and open dialogue. Although modest and short term, supplemental funding can strengthen organizational relationships and promote effective collaboration on community-facing activities; it can also lead to improved research engagement and translation of evidence to practice.