The Institute for Community Health: A Collaborative Organization Focused on Community Health Improvement

The Institute for Community Health (ICH) is a collaboration of three Massachusetts health care systems; the Cambridge Health Alliance, the Mount Auburn Hospital of CareGroup, and the Massachusetts General Hospital of Partners HealthCare. It was developed to improve the health of Cambridge, Somerville, and surrounding cities and towns. The vision for ICH was to be a nationally recognized organization dedicated to health status improvement through facilitation and collaborative sponsorship of community-based participatory research (CBPR), assessment, dissemination, and educational activities. In the early years, board members developed bylaws and hired an executive director. They also conducted several studies to understand the potential and provide direction for the organization. Most importantly, ICH cultivated existing relationships with community partners and developed new relationships with coalitions, ommunity-based organizations, governmental institutions (like the school and health departments) and citizens depending on the issue at hand. Through its work, ICH has catalyzed action, supported and built capacity of community partners, and impacted health indicators. Over the last 7 years, the organization has grown substantially and has dealt with organizational development issues. There were numerous challenges including maintaining partnerships, growth, disseminating results and dealing with the ongoing funding needs. Today, ICH represents one innovative strategy for developing a local public health research institute that has successfully balanced the demands of academics and funders with community partnership. The lessons learned throughout the process and the insight gained can hopefully be helpful to others wishing to accomplish similar goals and sustain like-minded organizations.