Optimizing community and stakeholder engagement in a merger of community health centres.

Community Health Centres (CHCs) are grounded in a model of care that includes engagement with the community and have a history of working with communities to respond to emerging needs. Although most CHCs consider themselves to be integrated, mergers in this sector are uncommon. In Ontario, the first voluntary merger of CHCs showed the importance of community engagement to realize the intended benefits of the integration and to effectively manage change.