Editor’s Note: The following conversation brings together perspectives from four community hub thought leaders. Responses have been edited for clarity and length and organized by topic rather than presented as separate interviews. Where multiple interviewees responded to the same question, their perspectives are presented together to highlight both shared insights and differing experiences.
Community care hubs and health and human service referral networks are designed to connect organizations that serve the same communities but often operate across different programs, institutions, and funding streams. For these networks to function efficiently, organizations need more than just information exchange; they require relationships built on trust, effective communication, active participation, and a shared understanding of their goals.
However, sustaining meaningful engagement can be challenging. Organizations may struggle to communicate their value or lose momentum once a network has been established. While newsletters, meetings, and other forms of communication can keep stakeholders informed, they do not necessarily promote deeper participation. Community hubs need to foster coordination, identify gaps, and create a sense of shared ownership among the organizations and community members involved.
To gain insights into how community hubs can effectively build and sustain stakeholder engagement, we spoke with four thought leaders:
Haley Uthlaut, M85 Project Lead at Veterans Bridge
Leslie Hausmann, Associate Director at Center for Healthcare Evaluation, Research, and Promotion
Amy DeArmond, Interim Executive Director at United Way Southwest Missouri & Southeast Kansas
Michelle Lester, Director – Care Partner Network at United Way Southwest Missouri & Southeast Kansas
They shared their perspectives on the importance of stakeholder engagement, the common pitfalls that organizations face, and how strategic communication can help turn relationships into lasting partnerships.
Why is stakeholder engagement important for health and human service referral networks and community care hubs?
Haley Uthlaut: Stakeholder engagement is not simply a communications function; it is part of a hub’s operating infrastructure. Community care hubs exist because people experience life across organizational boundaries while services are delivered through separate programs, institutions, and funding streams. Effective stakeholder engagement creates the trust, coordination, and shared accountability needed to bridge those boundaries.
A mature hub intentionally manages relationships by understanding which stakeholders matter most, what outcomes are shared, who owns the relationship, what commitments have been made, and what should happen next. Without that discipline, partnerships remain dependent on individual relationships and informal memory. With it, the hub becomes better able to align partners, surface gaps, coordinate action, and demonstrate collective value.
Amy DeArmond: At one recent meeting, someone identified a problem that a client had shared with a volunteer… someone else at the table from another organization suggested a solution, another expressed the ability to implement it, and yet another had a potential funding source. None of that would have happened without stakeholder buy-in and support to achieving holistic care for individuals that is bigger than any of us can accomplish on our own.
What communication gaps or missed opportunities do hubs face when trying to reach stakeholders?
Haley Uthlaut: Hubs often struggle to communicate their value beyond direct service delivery. They may describe activities without clearly explaining the hub’s distinct role in strengthening coordination, reducing fragmentation, improving access, or increasing accountability across the network.
Another common gap is communicating broadly rather than tailoring the message to each stakeholder’s motivations. A healthcare system, a funder, a public agency, an employer, and a community-based organization may all value the hub for different reasons. Effective engagement requires understanding what matters to each audience and connecting the hub’s work to that value.
Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity is failing to close the loop after an initial interaction. Many communication challenges are actually operating-system challenges. Without a consistent way to capture commitments, assign ownership, document follow-up, and understand stakeholder priorities, even strong communications cannot produce sustained engagement.
What stages do stakeholders typically move through (from awareness to advocacy)?
Haley Uthlaut: I think of the stakeholder journey as:
Awareness → Assessment → First Action → Engagement → Value Delivered → Proof Captured → Advocacy
Awareness means the stakeholder understands that the hub exists. Assessment is the period in which they decide whether the hub is credible, relevant, and aligned with their priorities. First Action is the initial meaningful step: a referral, a meeting, a data-sharing conversation, a funding decision, an introduction, or a joint activity. Engagement develops through repeated interactions and mutual contribution. Value Delivered occurs when the relationship produces a result that matters to the stakeholder and the community. Proof Captured means the hub can demonstrate and communicate that value. Advocacy is achieved when the stakeholder begins to explain, endorse, or champion the hub to others.
This journey can serve not only as a communications framework, but also as the architecture for stakeholder management. Each priority relationship should have a current stage, a desired next stage, a relationship owner, and a defined next action.
At what stage do you see the most exit in stakeholder engagement, and is there an area where communications can help prevent it? What are some factors that can lead to disengagement?
Michelle Lester: The biggest factor in disengagement is spotty or minimal use. Smaller organizations don’t always make referrals regularly. If not using the platform regularly, it is easy to fall back into old referral habits. The biggest way to stay engaged in our Network is to attend the in-person meetings. Participants who attend meetings regularly are more engaged than those who don’t.
Leslie Haussman: Disengagement can also be triggered if changes within the network are made without stakeholder input and/or if major changes aren’t explained transparently. While differences of opinion on how things should go are inevitable, if those who are in charge of facilitating/running a network go rogue, they risk losing the support, buy-in, and engagement that were important to establishing the network in the first place.
What communication strategies are most effective for building strong stakeholder relationships?
Leslie Haussman:
Personalized outreach and relationship building at the beginning. Get to know your stakeholders’ interests before imposing your own ideas.
When possible, meet the stakeholder where they are. Go to them vs. asking them to come to you all the time.
Establish regular, organized, and informative communication strategies. Make sure to include the information stakeholders have requested, along with anything else that is important to share. These strategies could include monthly data reports, quarterly mtgs, annual listening sessions, etc.
Be sure to build in opportunities to get stakeholder input on strategic decisions (e.g., have at least one question for which you want input in every meeting; make it an important question, and be prepared to incorporate stakeholder perspectives into the final decisions).