From the abstract: "The systemic nature of factors affecting maternal and child health merits action by multiple sectors partnering with families. Decision makers are increasingly seeking to ensure active participation of all stakeholder groups in developing and implementing community strategies. The current study found the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory effective for helping coaches work with community action teams to improve their collaboration over time. The instrument was easy for participants to complete and yielded findings about specific collaboration factors that teams were able to use. Community leaders may find North Carolina's experiences useful for comparison as they build and track their collaborative capacity."