Resources for Health Care and Community-Based Organizations

Cross-sector partnerships are a key strategy to address health-related social needs. Partnerships leverage the expertise and resources of each organization, and can bolster efforts to improve community health and well-being. Organizations that cultivate equitable partnerships can maximize the impact and sustainability of their joint efforts.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) engaged health care and community-based organizations using a multipronged, qualitative research approach to understand effective organizational processes and structures for establishing and maintaining equitable partnerships. Through interviews and focus groups with organizations involved in cross-sector partnerships, and a systematic (blinded) review of application submissions from organizations accredited by NCQA’s Health Equity Accreditation Plus program, NCQA identified facilitators and barriers to effective partnerships.

NCQA developed two resources as guides for health care and community-based organizations seeking to establish and maintain partnerships:

Co-Developing Cross-Sector Partnerships to Address Health-Related Social Needs: A Toolkit for Health Care Organizations Collaborating with Community-Based Organizations

Navigating Cross-Sector Partnerships: A Reference Guide for Community-Based Organizations Collaborating with Health Care Organizations

Together, these tools offer insights on organizational processes, structures and approaches to support effective cross-sector partnerships to mitigate health disparities and advance health equity. Both the Toolkit and Reference Guide offer recommendations for navigating the partnership journey, with consideration of motivations, agreements, funding, accountability and sustainability.

Sponsorship Support

The Cross-Sector Partnerships Toolkit and Reference Guide are owned and copyrighted by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). This work was supported by Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.

This document is owned and copyrighted by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and was produced by NCQA with financial support from Novartis. NCQA does not endorse any Novartis products or services. ©2024 NCQA. All rights reserved.