Table 3.

Common Themes in Facilitators to Partnership Sustainability and Corresponding Illustrative Quotations From Focus Group (Phase II) Participants

Theme	Theme description	Illustrative quote(s)
Investing time to develop relationships at the beginning of the partnership	Substantial initial time investment in the development of relationships helped facilitate long-term sustainability.	“We asked some really deep questions, and so we got to know each other. We built friendships…. We all had different backgrounds, and we all represented different parts of the community. Usually these people that came together we would not — our lives would not have intersected anywhere other than here ... so I think that’s a part of the sustainability is having people that understand each other at a, like, real inside part of your soul kinda level.” [Participant 1B]
Shared motivation for partnership participation	Shared motivation for joining and contributing to partnerships across individuals or organizations in partnership or project goals was associated with sustainable partnerships.	“… acknowledging each other’s context and being kind of honest and open about that so that really what happens over time, 4 or 5 years, was a real sense of shared ownership. This isn’t about the system anymore, protecting children from bad families, it was about the system and families and community working together to benefit children, and that was a kind of paradigm shift that happened because of these ongoing difficult and humble conversations.” [Participant 5A]
A “connector role” to facilitate cross-sector collaboration	Individuals in this connector role worked across multiple sectors, generally both academic and community, to initiate, develop, and maintain relationships.	“I think you have the folks in the community that are, they’re born there. They’re raised there. They marry, they have their kids. They’re active in the community. They own their community, and this person that came to us, who’s just a force to be reckoned with, had enough sense to go, ‘Here’s other people who are doin’ the work, and I just need somebody to mesh us together and make us all realize we’re all trying to do the same thing instead of competing.’” [Participant 7B] “I was excited about bringing my colleagues into the community group that I was familiar with. I mean, that is just what I do … it’s my passion. It’s what fuels me. So, for me, I was really excited to get this goin’ ‘cause my intent is always, with people, that it will continue even if I’m not a part of that partnership anymore, but that they will continue. So I like to really build, like, this network of partnerships … [and] I was really excited to introduce them to sort of what I do on my side.” [Participant 1A]
Equal power dynamics in partnership operations	Prioritizing and striving for equal power dynamics across partners and sectors was identified to be critical for facilitating partnership sustainability.	“I also think that the sustainability was because we were treated like equals at that table, even though there was MDs at that table and there were PhDs at that table.” [Participant 1B]
Reciprocity between partners from different sectors	Relationships described as sustainable often included reciprocity in the form of shared resources and access to benefits between partners representing different sectors.	“That’s, to me, kind of one of the critical elements of sustainability is creating and facilitating win-wins for the partners that are involved in the process.” [Participant 8C]
Institutionalization of the partnership or its goals	Establishing organizational systems and infrastructure to support the partnership or its goals beyond the individual or group level.	“These aren’t just the relationships between the two partners. It’s also their institutional relationships ‘cause people come and go, but you really have to get the buy-in and the support of the larger institutions.” [Participant 4C]