• Elsa M Orellano-Colón, Yolanda González-Laboy, and Amarelis De Jesús-Rosario.
• Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy Program, School of Health Professions, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• P R Health Sci J. 2017 Jun 1; 36 (2): 107-114.

ObjectiveThe objective of this project was to develop a community-academic coalition partnership to conduct community-based participatory research (CBPR) to address health disparities in older adults with chronic conditions living in the Quebrada Arriba community.MethodsWe used the 'Developing and Sustaining CPPR Partnerships: A Skill-Building Curriculum', to create the Quebrada Arriba Community-Academic Partnership (QACAP). We assessed the meetings effectiveness and the CBPR experiences of the coalition members in the community-academic partnership.ResultsThe stepwise process resulted in: the development of The Coalition for the Health and Wellbeing of Older People of Quebrada Arriba; the partnership's mission and vision; the operating procedures; the formulation of the research question, and; the action plan for obtaining funding resources. The mean levels of satisfaction for each of the items of the Meeting Effectiveness Evaluation tool were 100%. The mean agreement rating scores on variables related to having a positive experience with the coalition, members' representativeness of community interest, respectful contacts between members, the coalition's vision and mission, the participation of the members in establishing the prioritized community problem, and sharing of resources between the members was 100%.ConclusionThe steps used to build the QACAP provided an effective structure to create the coalition and captured the results of coalition activities. Partners' time to build trust and developing a sufficient understanding of local issues, high interest of the community members, flexibility of the partners, capitalization on the partners' strengths, and the shared decision building process were key contributors of this coalition's success.

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