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Glossary

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Centralization

A network analytics term that measures the extent to which communication and collaboration within the partnership is focused around one sector or one lead agency.

Champions

In the SNAP-Ed context, an individual who takes action to facilitate access and/or create appeal for improved healthy eating and physical activity choices, in the settings where SNAP-Ed programming is provided or in the broader community. Champions are community members whose activities go beyond the services delivered by the SNAP-Ed Implementing Agency in the local setting.

Channel

A means of communication or expression; a path along which information passes.

Clinical-community linkages

Relationships that exist when primary care clinicians make a connection with a community resource to provide certain preventive services such as tobacco screening and counseling.

Coalition

Group of individuals and organizations that commit to joint action, typically for a longer term, in adopting nutrition or physical activity practices, supports and/or standards. Key characteristics include: shared leadership, definition of roles, and generation of new resources.

Collaboration

Two or more organizations contributing to joint activities, each with identified personnel who help advise and make decisions about effective strategies and interventions. Characteristics include a system with shared impacts, a consensus decision-making process, and formal role assignments.

Collective impact

The commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem.

Community

A group of people defined by geographic, demographic, and/or civic/political boundaries. For example, a "community" could consist of the residents of a town or a neighborhood, the members of a particular demographic group within a geographic region, or all individuals served by a group of community-based and/or governmental institutions.

Community policing

A philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime. It comprises three elements:
  • Community partnerships between the law enforcement agency and those they serve to develop solutions and increase trust in police
  • Organizational transformation that aligns management, structure, personnel, and information systems to support community partnerships and problem solving (internal changes within the law enforcement agency)
  • Problem solving, which includes the process of engaging in the proactive and systematic examination of identified problems to develop and evaluate effective responses (an internal framework within the law enforcement agency)

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

A retail operation that sells shares in a future harvest that may or may not be realized. Farm or network/association of multiple farms that offers consumers regular (usually weekly) deliveries of locally grown farm products during one or more harvest season(s) on a subscription or membership basis.

Community-wide recognition programs

Programs with standards set by authoritative third parties to help civic leaders partner with the public, nonprofit, and business sectors to achieve collective impact-type goals such as obesity prevention or "livable communities."

Complete Streets

A transportation policy and design approach that requires streets to be planned, designed, operated, and maintained to enable safe, convenient, and comfortable travel and access for users of all ages and abilities regardless of their mode of transportation.

Cooperation

Arrangement between organizations working together in which one assists the other with information such as referrals, providing space, distributing marketing and client education materials, and hosting events open to the clients and community members.

Coordination

Arrangement between organizations working together in which one organization maintains autonomous leadership, but there is a common focus on group decision-making; emphasizes sharing of resources to aid in the adoption of policy, systems, and environmental changes, and associated promotion listed in MT4 and MT5.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)

Proper design, maintenance, and use of the built environment to enhance quality of life and reduce the incidence and fear of crime. Includes the following elements:
  • Natural surveillance achieved through lighting, removing concealed areas, and placing view points and entrances/exits for easy observation
  • Territoriality designated by signage, low fencing, or other landscape elements that delineate the transition between areas of different use
  • Access control through man-made (e.g., locks, fencing, or other security barriers) or natural (e.g., landscaping) mechanisms that discourage unwanted access
  • Activity support (e.g., aesthetics or activities) that promotes use to increase "eyes on the street"
  • Management and maintenance of landscaping, lighting, and other features

Cross-contamination

The physical movement or transfer of harmful bacteria from one person, object, or place to another. Cross-contamination is how bacteria can be spread.