**Forthcoming in Progress in Community Health Partnerships (PCHP) 20.2. All rights reserved.**
ABSTRACT
Background: Community-based exercise programs (CBEPs) can help cancer survivors increase physical activity (PA) but sustaining this behavior is challenging.
Objective: Utilize a research-practice partnership framework to explore perceptions of implementing evidence-informed intervention strategies to support PA maintenance and engaging in the partnership.
Methods: Professionals (n=7) who were involved with the delivery of one of four CBEPs for cancer survivors participated in semi-structured interviews. Audio recordings were transcribed, data were coded using an inductive approach and thematically analyzed.
Results: Themes were the perceived value of maintaining PA for cancer survivors, a need for program adaptations and funding to sustain intervention strategies, and the importance of clear communication to foster a respectful collaboration.
Conclusions: Findings will contribute to a study an adaptive PA maintenance intervention and can be applied to future research-practice practice partnerships in exercise oncology to help advance our understanding of how to implement and provide support for PA maintenance.