Steering Committee and Facilitator meetings

CHI generally recommends quarterly Steering Committee meetings, if not monthly. The steering committee should be actively engaged with the growth and sustainability of the Centering practice. As such, regular meetings used for reviewing goals, outcomes, and ideating new initiatives are important. 

As you might imagine, the frequency of steering committee meetings varies considerably across our sites. Smaller sites may incorporate Centering as a standing part of their regular staff meetings. Whereas larger sites really need to carve out dedicated time for their Steering Committees. It is also important to maintain a regular schedule of meetings (just as in Centering)  rather than trying to pull them together on an ad hoc basis. 

Based on our internal observations through CenteringCounts, Steering Committee activity and efficacy is closely correlated with site success. Sites with less active Steering Committees (or none at all)  tend to struggle more with patient enrollment, staff buy-in, resource allocation and community partner engagement.

You also asked about Facilitator meetings. We don't specify how or how often your facilitators should meet. We strongly encourage group facilitators to debrief after each group session using the Facilitator Process evaluations to help improve practice. Since it is common for facilitation skills to drift over time some sites find it helpful to integrate a peer review process among the facilitators to keep skills sharp.