In the Healthy Start program, consortia are used to engage communities in systems change and service improvements to increase consumer voice and reduce disparities in infant mortality. Of the 95 grantees, 92 reported the existence of an active consortium. Grantees that did not have a consortium indicated that they were in the planning stages or relied on the consortium of a separate Healthy Start grantee.

Although the HRSA Guidance outlines roles for Healthy Start consortia, the purpose and priorities of the consortia are determined by the grantees. Grantees could report more than one purpose from among six relevant to their consortia; the average number reported was four. The consortium purposes most commonly reported by grantees were to share information and/or referrals (92 percent), to fulfill the requirements of the grant Guidance (84 percent), to change maternal and child health practices in the community (80 percent), and to work toward goals specified in the Local Health System Action Plan (80 percent). One of the characteristics of a successful consortium is the inclusion of key stakeholders. Eighty percent of grantees strongly agreed that the consumers on the consortia were culturally representative of the target community, while 58 percent indicated providers were culturally representative (data not shown). Approximately half of the grantees (47 percent) strongly agreed that the consortium included all necessary stakeholders and fewer (39 percent) felt that membership was comprised of decision-makers from the organizations represented.