PRC Partnership Trust Tool

What is the PRC Partnership Trust Tool (PTT)?

The PRC Partnership Trust Tool is designed to engage PRCs’ academic, community, and public health practice partners in a dialogue about issues that foster and hinder trust. It allows partners to explore strengths, identify opportunities for improvement, and develop strategies for enhancing trust. The PTT has two parts:

1) Survey: Participants complete an anonymous survey and rate their experiences and expectations of their partners’ behaviors related to various components of trust.

2) Facilitated Discussion: Partners meet for 4–6 hours and a facilitator leads them through a guided discussion based on survey results.

Although the PTT helps partners describe trust in their relationships, it is not an assessment tool or scale for measuring trust.

Why was the PTT developed?

PRC partners identified trust as an important and feasible concept to address about their partnerships. Subsequently, trust was included in the PRC Program Logic Model as a motivating condition in the PRC research process. Although the success of a PRC may depend on its ability to develop and maintain partnerships built on trust, addressing such a sensitive issue with partners is challenging. The PTT helps PRCs spark dialogue and helps align partners’ perceptions about trust, which may help partners function together effectively to reach their ultimate goals of improving health and eliminating health inequalities.

How was the PTT developed?

An external research team developed the tool by using information from focus groups and guidance from PRCs’ community, academic, public health partners, and PRC Program office staff. The PTT was pilot-tested with several PRCs to assess the tool’s components (survey and facilitated discussion), the efficiency of the process and activities, the effectiveness of the facilitator, and the instruction materials developed to help PRCs use the tool on their own. For more information about the pilot test, contact the PRC Program office at cdcinfo@cdc.gov.

What are the potential benefits of using the PTT?

Using the PTT is a partnership-building activity. Some key benefits are listed below.

• Involves all partners—community, academic, health department, or others.
• Helps in planning evaluation activities that relate to partner relationships.
• Helps partners identify sensitive issues related to trust and develop a plan for resolving concerns.
• Helps PRCs document progress in developing partnerships based on trust.

What materials are needed to implement the PTT?

PTT Users Manual (PDF-539KB)#

PTT Users Manual Appendices

a.  Partnership Trust Tool Survey (DOC-2.1MB | PDF-372KB)#
b.  Facilitated Discussion Guide (PDF-383KB)#
c.  Sample Invitation Letter (DOC-845KB | PDF-233KB)#
d.  Data Summary Excel Spreadsheets (XLS-207KB)#
e.  Appreciative Inquiry Diagram (PDF-18KB)#
f.   Summary Table (PDF-89K)#

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