Co-developing cross-sector partnerships to address health-related social needs: A toolkit for health care organizations collaborating with community-based organizations

This toolkit was developed using insights from interviews with HCOs and focus groups with CBOs engaged in cross-sector partnerships. NCQA used the Cross-Sector Alignment Theory of Change Framework to help identify foundational elements of partnership structures and strategies for engagement in a systematic (blinded) review of documents submitted by HCOs as part of their application to earn Health Equity Accreditation Plus.

These foundational elements helped identify additional themes (regarding motivation, operational decisions, resources, and structures and processes) using data from 3 focus groups with 10 CBOs and from semi-structured interviews with 6 HCOs. NCQA identified 7 core areas for HCOs to consider when partnering with CBOs.