Public sector reform around the world has embraced the application of complex “settings” or place-based interventions that hinge on cross-sectoral collaboration and locally designed interventions. This report focuses on the development of a place-based chronic disease initiative in Logan-Beaudesert, established by Queensland Health to generate new ways of addressing chronic disease. The place-based initiative was first proposed in 2004, funded and planned during 2006 and initiated in 2007. During 2007, the focus was on design, engagement and development of the initiative within the local community. The subsequent years (2008-2009) focused on the development of the coalition and its actions. During 2010 and 2011, its focus will be on fully implementing actions and monitoring outcomes. THE EVALUATION APPROACH

Evaluation of these complex initiatives is extremely difficult. Communities and social groups change inherently and repeatedly due to economic, social, political climates and local issues. These initiatives tend to have ambitious goals that tackle long-standing systemic social problems, meaning that effectiveness may not be apparent for some time. They require sustained investment and usually evolve over long periods of time. They often include a number of complex activities that may be dependent on each other or have a synergistic effect. Thus, they represent a “system” of actions rather than one clearly defined intervention that can be researched easily. Several features are important to research in this context, 1) the use of a participatory research design that engages with the participants, providing continual corrective feedback to those involved in its planning; 2) a dynamic approach that tracks the development of the initiative over time and builds understanding of its complexity from multiple perspectives and at multiple levels and 3) the development of a complex program logic model to guide the outcome research as suggested by the Medical Research Council (UK, Campbell et al., 2000).

Four distinct phases were applied in this research, namely:

1. Phase 1: Community consultation: To identify expectations of the initiative
2. Phase 2: Coalition development: To monitor the way in which the initiative evolved
3. Phase 3: Program implementation: To understand impact and implementation
4. Phase 4: Coalition outcomes: To determine if the initiative achieved its objectives The current report focuses on Phase 2 of the research. Phase 1 findings are summarised briefly in this report, but have been previously reported elsewhere. Phases 3 and 4 will be the focus of subsequent research reports in 2010 and 2011.