How to promote effective African American partnerships for community-based HIV/AIDS planning: lessons learned from the Atlanta Regional Minority Health Network.

Coalitions differ from partnerships in that they are often more diverse in their organizational components. Such diversity may lend the advantages of resource conservation and greater credibility but may pose fundamental challenges as well. Using group communication tactics and group maintenance strategies such as positive communication and intentional relationship-building can strengthen the performance of a group. The purpose of this paper is to describe the communication enhancement and conflict prevention methods which the Atlanta Regional Minority Health Network found essential to the successful functioning of the coalition of HIV prevention stakeholders.