• Lisa Jane Hardy, Peter Wertheim, Kyle Bohan, Julio Cesar Quezada, and Eric Henley.
• Department of Anthropology, Interdisciplinary Health Policy Institute, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA. lisa.hardy@nau.edu
• Health Promot Pract. 2013 Jul 1; 14 (4): 514-23.

AbstractScholars and clinicians are increasingly recognizing the complexity of social contexts of health and the need for multifunctioning approaches to health care problems including community- and policy-level strategies. Barriers to change in health care policy can sometimes be attributed to the actions of advocacy coalitions who operate from a limited view of "policy change." Advocates have a tendency to pressure stakeholders to mandate laws as a final resolution of a movement, often leading to failure or, worse, stigmatizing of issues. A more inclusive focus on health policy change as an ongoing process increases the efficacy of advocacy and outcomes measurement. This article presents a tool for policy action that coalition members developed through the implementation of a 3-year grant to improve the safety net for preventing childhood obesity. Scholars and policy makers developed the Policy Coalition Evaluation Tool with the intent to create a model to guide and measure efforts and outcomes of a local community-based policy coalition. The authors suggest using community-based participatory research approaches for developing a coalition-specific Policy Coalition Evaluation Tool to increase the effectiveness of advocacy groups and the documentation of coalition activities over time.

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