Building Effective Community Partnerships for Youth Development: Lessons Learned From ACT for Youth

and a wide range of community settings have participated in this statewide effort, providing a rich laboratory to study effective partnership development. Based on the experience of the first 6 years of ACT for Youth, this report discusses lessons learned in partnership development in ACT for Youth with attention to the most effective partnerships. The most effective partnerships were differentiated by their ability to accomplish four tasks: (1) clearly define the purpose and vision of the initiative, (2) establish a community development partnership organizational structure and membership, (3) develop collaborative work processes, and (4) create sustained momentum. These elements will receive close attention in future YD efforts in New York State, and should be used to inform YD efforts in other states or communities. KEY WORDS: collaboration, community partnership development, participatory leadership, positive youth development Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth is a com-munity development initiative of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), described in greater detail by Carter and colleagues elsewhere in this sup-plement. Community development through the cre-ation of collaborative partnerships has been proposed as a means of improving a variety of societal1,2 and health3 problems, as well as a public health strategy.4 In addition, seminal monographs have been published de-voted to the development of communities with a focus on their assets,5 and to the development of youth wit