Challenges faced by community connectors: lessons learned from a Taiwan public health initiative

BACKGROUND: Effective solutions that meet the diverse community health needs of older adult populations are of critical importance. To address these needs, a nationwide community connector team—tasked with providing referral support to older adult populations and completing an asset mapping resource inventory initiative centered around the needs of older adult populations—was developed in Taiwan. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore community connectors’ experiences and challenges. METHODS: Community connectors (n = 26) across four diverse sites participated in focus group interviews in July 2020. Interviews explored the challenges community connectors encountered in their roles; the strategies used to address these challenges; the asset mapping process; and on how they conceptualized their roles. Qualitative content analysis was applied. RESULTS: Three themes were uncovered: developing community ties, cross-organization interactions and professional conflicts. The findings show that community connectors face hurdles in uncovering community resources and that they experience considerable professional instability. The findings also shed light on the day-to-day approaches used to navigate on-the-job challenges and the steps taken to develop community partnerships. CONCLUSIONS: The experiences of community connectors provide important insights and can serve to illuminate the development of similar initiatives that seek to use community connectors for community health related purposes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-022-03565-8.