Project CHARGE: building an urban health policy advocacy community.

BACKGROUND The Coalition for Health Access to Reach Greater Equity (Project CHARGE) is a health policy advocacy coalition devoted to improving healthcare access for Asian Americans in New York City. OBJECTIVES This paper discusses Project CHARGE's strategies for building a successful coalition. METHODS Findings are based on evaluation data from field observations and surveys of Coalition representatives. LESSONS LEARNED (1) Health policy coalitions can gain strength by recruiting from a wider range of organizations; maintaining a diverse coalition requires developing strong relationships among members. (2) Locally focused health policy coalitions should consider modifying course if needed to respond to policy developments at other governmental levels. (3) Health service providers can help to sustain policy advocacy activities if sufficient training is provided to develop them into policy advocates. (4) Early successes need to be planned to galvanize Coalition members. CONCLUSIONS Aiming to build a policy advocacy "community" may help to ensure that advocacy continues even when funding is scarce.