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Journal of the Australian Health Promotion Association
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Impact on community organisations that partnered with the Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion campaign

Geoffrey Jalleh A , Julia Anwar-McHenry A B , Robert J. Donovan A and Amberlee Laws A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845, Australia.

B Corresponding author. Email: julia.anwarmchenry@curtin.edu.au

Health Promotion Journal of Australia 24(1) 44-48 https://doi.org/10.1071/HE12909
Submitted: 24 July 2012  Accepted: 11 January 2013   Published: 27 March 2013

Abstract

Issue addressed: A primary aim of the pilot phase of the Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion campaign was to form partnerships with community organisations. As a component of the broader campaign strategy, collaborating organisations promoted their activities under the Act-Belong-Commit banner in exchange for resources, promotional opportunities and capacity building in event management and funding.

Methods: The impact of the Act-Belong-Commit campaign on the capacity and activities of collaborating organisations during the pilot phase was evaluated using self-completed mail surveys in 2006 and 2008.

Results: Collaboration with the campaign had a positive impact on community organisations’ capacity, including staff expertise, media publicity and funding applications. Collaborating organisations had strong positive perceptions of Act-Belong-Commit officers and all expressed a willingness to collaborate in future events and activities.

Conclusions: The partnership model used during the pilot phase of the Act-Belong-Commit campaign was successful in creating mutually beneficial exchanges with collaborating organisations.

So what?: Community partnerships are necessary for the effective delivery of mental health promotion campaigns at a local level. Successful partnerships involve the provision of real and valuable benefits to collaborating organisations in return for their cooperation in promoting health messages.

Key words: mental health promotion, community partnerships, collaboration, evaluation.


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