Organizational partnerships for a trauma-informed community: A community-wide social network study

J Community Psychol. 2021 Sep;49(7):2658-2678. doi: 10.1002/jcop.22645. Epub 2021 Jun 26.

Abstract

We investigated whether Peace4Tarpon's trauma-responsive community capacity activities led to greater collaboration among community partners. We conducted longitudinal social network analysis (SNA) among organizations within Peace4Tarpon's network in 2016 and 2018 to capture cooperation around adverse childhood experiences-related topics. We examined network structure, cohesion, organizational collaboration, and associations between centrality and organizational practices. Peace4Tarpon's network included diverse sectors, with a group of organizations forming the network core and collaborating over time. The network displayed a small increase in cohesion, more cross-sector collaboration, and less heterophily over time. We found a significant difference between the mean betweenness centralities of organizations who assessed resilience and those who did not in the 2018 average union network. This is one of the first studies using SNA to investigate a trauma-informed community network. Findings from this type of analysis may assist community organizations in strengthening outreach and strategically engaging organizations within a trauma-informed network.

Keywords: adverse childhood experiences; capacity building; community networks; intersectoral collaborations; public health; social network analysis; trauma-informed community.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Community Networks*
  • Humans
  • Social Networking*