Eilbert, K., & Lafronza, V. “Working Together for Community Health: A Model and Case Studies.” Evaluation and Program Planning, 28(2), May, 2005: 185-199. Abstract – This article describes research to improve the practice of organizational affiliation in community health improvement efforts. The model brings together systems and institutional theories to study affiliation as an organizational issue, along with the relevant public health literature. It was tested against practice in two sites and revised to reflect feedback from research participants that was confirmed in the literature. Case studies describe how each site adopted a form of affiliation other than partnership. Lessons learned included the importance of marrying public health research with the management and organization development literature for the study of organizational affiliation, the need for flexibility in developing a model to address organizational affiliation, and the need for local ownership to ensure maximum benefit. Recommendations include further research to refine elements of the model and a ‘partnership’ of practitioners, researchers, and funding agencies to use the model in feasibility and evaluation studies of affiliation efforts. Keywords: Model; Feasibility and evaluation studies; Community health; Partnership; Organizational affiliation Back to Our Writing