Multisector collaboration has become an increasingly popular approach to address a wide range of complex public problems, like the need to address SDOH.¹⁴ In community health systems, multisector collaboration is acknowledged as a critical requirement for achieving successful health system transformation.^15,16 Experts say multisector collaboration is not just ‘a good thing’ to do, but ‘the necessary thing’ to do.¹⁷ With this growing consensus that multisector collaboration and partnerships are essential to improve community outcomes, organizations have a clear responsibility to collaborate with the communities they serve and align their efforts across sectors.¹⁸

Multisector collaboratives (MSCs) can address SDOH to improve community health outcomes by working with diverse partners such as schools, health clinics, community-based organizations, and local governments to tackle complex health issues.

Multisector collaboratives (MSCs) are formed when multiple organizations in various sectors, such as hospitals, schools, local government, and community-based organizations develop partnerships that “take a systems approach to their work, and are driven by a common goal and accountability to the communities they serve.”¹⁹ By drawing upon the expertise and resources of diverse sectors, MSCs can build the capacity to solve systemic problems more powerfully and effectively than stand-alone organizations.

Related Resources

Improving Population Health Through Multisector Collaboration a Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) research brief (2023)
Powering Change Curriculum: Building Healthy, Equitable Communities Together, a Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) and California Accountable Community for Health Initiative (CACHI) curriculum for multisector collaboratives (2021)

View all references for the Data Walk.