3.7  Choose an Organizational Structure

Professional efforts without community support can have little lasting effect. It is important to select an organizational structure and leadership that will enhance the probability of success of the effort. Practitioners often skip this step and focus on direct services. This tutorial will focus on communitywide coalitions that comprise representatives of organizations from multiple sectors, including volunteer service agencies, government, business, religious institutions, and schools.

Develop coalition subunits. Whether called committees, subcommittees, teams, or task forces, coalition subunits are required to share responsibilities for different tasks of the organization. Subunits can be organized in relation to (1) geography, such as communities of people living in the same neighborhood; (2) affinity, such as ethnic groups, businesses, or religious organizations; (3) institution-oriented organizations, in which groups are created on the basis of institutional affiliation such as schools, businesses, churches, and government; and (4) mission-oriented organizations, in which groups are created on the basis of the type of issue or target population, such as youth gangs, homelessness, perinatal addiction, or older people.

Determine leadership type. Organizational structure obviously involves who will take and sustain initiative. The initiators of a prevention effort may not be the best persons to maintain the coalition. And, leadership may need to change as the organization matures and activities and tasks change. There are three primary types of leadership in community coalitions:

• A single prominent leader, such as the executive director of the agency organizing a prevention effort, or the elected chair of a steering or executive committee;
• Multiple leaders, such as a council with members representing the primary organizations involved in the prevention effort who have equal votes and leadership responsibilities;
• Broad-based leadership, such as a steering committee or an advisory committee, as well as a director, program managers, and subcommittee chairs, with leadership shared across multiple management committees.