Download - Best Practices Community Partnerships
TAKING PARTNERSHIPS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
From Best Practice to Common Practice
IDEAS WE’LL ADDRESS
Site and Issue-Based Teams (also Place-Based)
Creative Higher Level Placements
Community Capacity Building
Organizing Around Issues & Bigger Goals
Integrating Web-Based Tools
Reflecting This in BWBRS
OPENING QUESTIONS
What is the current level of integration of site/issue-based teams? How many partners? How much of your Bonner Program?
Do you have student leaders playing roles as site/issue/team leaders or in helping arrange & manage service partnerships?
How much auditing have you done of students’ higher-level placements (as reflected by CLAs and in BWBRS)
ORGANIZING SITE/ISSUE TEAMS:POTENTIAL & CHALLENGES
Supports partners to have volunteers (Bonners) that can take on higher-level roles and address capacity
Provides more structure for students to engage in team-based goal-setting, education, & research
Aligns with developmental model
Many non-profit partners are small; capacity needs and lower-level placements crowd out room to develop higher-level placements
Culturally, some don’t want to interfere with students’ ‘choice’ of service
Being ready: some campuses take leap to assign leaders (VISTAs or PCs), and it fails
RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES
Organize clusters of students around issues/sites within a place (multiples sites for one issue team when dealing with small partners)
Transform meeting structure (alternating with class meetings) & retreats, engaging partners & empowering students through leadership roles (including research)
RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES
Create innovative intern and higher-level capacity building roles (e.g., Senior Intern, Community Outreach Intern, volunteer training program, videos, web development, resource development)
Athletic program/team metaphor combined with full range of issues (and academic connections) counters ‘culture’ issue
WHAT’S YOUR APPROACH?
Where do you see these ideas taking shape in your program?
What are some of the challenges, and how have you (or can you) adapt your program or approach to meet them?
How might you utilize enrichment grants to support this work?
MORE QUESTIONS:
Have you begun organizing around issues, either with partners or on campus, or both? What are you doing?
What other capacity building initiatives have you developed?
Have you begun to utilize web-based tools (Serve 2.0) in your program in ways that benefit partners?
ORGANIZING:POTENTIAL & CHALLENGES
Strategically organizing campus-community activities around issues can allow new coordination of civic work (service, courses, assessment)
Campus coordination can align with new ways to build capacity of community, and increase quality of civic engagement
Campus structures can present challenges to working across department/division
Again, partners are sometimes not ready to think in this way, due to resource and capacity needs
RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES
Organize series of workshops and institutes with one or several partners, tapping into other resources (faculty, institutional) on campus
Build and carry out a more strategically-focused working group and process, which would focus on taking civic engagement to the next levels
RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES
Utilize retreats and meetings with this working group to organize around issues, projects (QEP), and initiatives
Tap into assessment and other rubrics to inform the plan and persuade others with data-rich information
Utilize enrichment funds for these purposes (mini-grants, retreats, structures)
EXAMPLES & HANDOUTS
Davidson College: workshop series, partner consortia, summer retreats, developing non-profit institute
WV Wesleyan: leadership team for civic engagement, VISTA positions, retreat series, developed institution-wide outcomes for civic engagement
Siena College: institution-wide assessment process, then linked with other engagement strategies
TCNJ: team is here to share work
INTEGRATING WEB-BASED TOOLS
Outreach, recruitment, & matching
Program management (and design)
Connecting program to other resources on campus (and across network)
Storing & sharing your knowledge
WE’LL EMPHASIZE 3 TOOLS HERE
WIKI: Partner Profile for Bonner Program or Campus-Wide Wiki
Ning (Bonner Network Forum): a platform for students, staff, faculty, and partners (eventually) to be in touch around issues
PolicyOptions tool for research (cover in tomorrow’s session)
USING A WIKI: PARTNERS CAN BENEFIT
Wiki: interactive web-page (many can edit)
Agency Information
Mission/Vision, Program Descriptions
Map/Location (Place-Based Analysis, GIS)
Volunteer Positions
Videos (Profiles, Training, More)
Simple structure and
links.
Each team has a page to update.
A simple profile introduces your
site.
Students create & update plans, manage work.
A Campus-Wide Wiki can help with
outreach, listing volunteer
opportunities at your site.
The Wiki can introduce students to important information about the neighborhood. Here
students did community asset mapping to create
videos and then mapped partners.
The wiki can be a tool for students at
site to do & document plans (setting goals,
charting progress).
Site/Issue structure also
supports policy research (co-curricular).
HOW DO WE CONNECT & LEVERAGE NETWORK?
Bonner Programs at 80+ colleges & universities
Each has 10-100 students & 10-200 community partners
We work across common issues to make a difference
CAMPUS ISSUE PROFILES: MAP THE WORK
Campus Profile
Types of Service
Academic Work
Education & Training
Campus & Organizational Capacity Building
Research, Policy Analysis & Deliberative Democracy
WORKING GROUP PROFILES: MAP THE NETWORK
National Profiles
Begin to allow campuses to connect with each other
Map the network-wide approach
Precursor to narrowing focus & doing public policy research
Allows foundation to use Ning to connect groups
FORUM GROUPS: SHARE IDEAS WITH US
Help Us Strategize:
How to support these connections across campus
How these tools can link with your own campus’s needs (e.g., campus Ning sites like Middlesex)
Dreaming about the potential and how to make it work
BONNER NETWORK FORUM (NING)
How it can help:
Get staff, students, partners, and faculty to join groups
Start & participate in discussions
Post articles & resources
Connect around specific interests