FICAS
Feasibility of Interventions for Coalition Adoption of Evidence Informed Strategies
How can networks help coalitions put evidence into practice?
The study
FICAS studies how community partnerships can bring research evidence, local knowledge, and relationships together to choose and act on strategies that support child and family health. It builds on Catalyzing Communities, an approach that combines facilitated systems thinking and group model building with technical assistance and support for locally selected action. Participating partnerships retain authority over their priorities and the strategies they pursue.
What the pilot examines
The pilot compares three conditions: a delayed start, Catalyzing Communities alone, and Catalyzing Communities with added FICAS supports. These supports use network information to form a connected working group, engage trusted and bridging members, review evidence together, compare options through structured decision support, and learn from changes in communication and relationships over time.
The study examines whether these supports are feasible, acceptable, and appropriate for community partnerships. Surveys, network data, interviews, and implementation records help the team understand participation, shared learning, strategy adoption, and early implementation. This feasibility work will inform refinement of the approach and larger studies.
Travis’s contribution
As Principal Investigator, Travis leads the development and evaluation of the FICAS supports, bringing together community-engaged implementation research, network analysis, and participatory systems methods.
Methods and contributions
Community-engaged implementation research · Group model building · Social network analysis · Shared evidence review and decision support · Mixed-methods feasibility evaluation