KEYWORDS:
Community Partners, Common Goals, Community Strengths and Challenges, Motivation

BACKGROUND:
A group of individuals began meeting monthly in Pagosa Springs,CO in January 2000, as a result of the Colorado Children's Immunization Coalition's immunization support project grant. The overall goal of this grant is to improve immunization coverage of infants and children in five geographical areas of Colorado. Working specifically within the community is only a small percentage of designated staff time, but has made the largest impact in the small, ever more diverse, mountain town of Pagosa Springs.

OBJECTIVE(S):
The objectives of forming a community group were to gather as diverse, yet representative, group of individuals as possible who were interested in children's health issues. Specifically they had to be willing to explore their community's immunization structure to postively impact immunization coverage.

METHOD(S):
The idea was to develop a community partnership where individuals were motivated to define common goals regarding childhood immunizations, after defining Pagosa Springs' community strengths and challenges.

RESULT(S):
As a clearer picture of the community's immunization structure grew, the community partnership strenghtened and motivation increased. In one short year, immunization coverage for entering kindergartners has improved more than 50%.

CONCLUSIONS(S):
The Pagosa Springs Immunization Network has positively impacted their community by their insights, and commitment to their common goals. Their journey over the past year, which created a focused, motivated, and effective community partnership, will be shared. This process is adaptable to any rural or small community setting.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
1. Describe one start up process for forming a community immunization network partnership.
2. Identify how a community's immunization strengths and challenges can be determined.
3. Describe several factors in mainitaining focus on community goals, commitment, and motivation.