Engaging community sport and recreation organisations in population health interventions: Factors affecting the formation, implementation, and institutionalisation of partnerships efforts

Sport and recreation organisations can play a key role in the development of physical activity strategies in health promotion. There is a paucity of research that has examined the engagement of a wide range of sport and recreation organisations in partnership approaches that promote active lifestyles. This research used a multiple-case study protocol to explore partnership development between a range of professional (e.g., paid recreation staff) and volunteer organisations (e.g., club-based sport). A total of 22 partnership members were interviewed from eight sport and recreation partnership programs funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) in Australia. Content analysis was used to analyse the interviews with reference to a public health partnership framework. In partnership formation, results showed that representatives from professional organisations shared interests in health promotion goals, while volunteer organisations focused on increases in club membership; professionals lacked organisational capacity in terms of leadership and skills while volunteers lacked human resource capacity. Engaging the sport and recreation sector in partnerships that aim to promote active lifestyles requires long-term commitment from funding agencies and partnering organisations. The design of pragmatic programs that build on the core business of each participating organisation, irrespective of whether they share a common mission, is important.