Creating Community Partnerships for Common Goals Brooke Blessington Katharinna Bain Regional Extension Education Director Keokuk County Extension Director Region 18 Good Afternoon! Again, welcome to the break-out session of Creating Community Partnerships for Common Goals. We were hoping to hear what you would like to learn more about today. What are your expectations coming into this discussion??

At Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, we are working to build a strong Iowa, and we do this by engaging all Iowans in research, education, and extension experiences to address current and emerging real-life challenges. Our vision is to advance our land-grant values by building partnerships and offering our educational programs to our communities. One of the most common answers we hear when we ask councils about what they see as their primary goal is: Programming

What issues or barriers do you experience when providing programs in your communities? Popcorn activity—gather input from participants. How can community partnerships help navigate these issues? Possible responses to get the conversation rolling: Staff/staff time, budget/finance, knowing what needs to address, accessing participants….

What do you mean by “Community Partnerships?” Collaborative, long-term relationships Alliance between organizations to fulfill an obligation Working towards a common goal Teamwork Bringing mutual benefits to both parties. The term partnership and related terms such as collaboration, coalition, network, work group, and cooperation, are used to describe a variety of relationships and structures (Snow, 2012). There is a lot of meaning and value behind it. For our presentation, partnership refers to a group of organizations with a common interest who agree to work together toward a common goal (Snow, 2012). So what do Community Partnerships look like? Partnerships are collaborative, long-term relationships between businesses and community service organizations. When partnering with another organization or business, you are forming an alliance between the organizations. This alliance allows the two to work together to fulfil an obligation or undertake a specific task together. By having 2 or more organizations involved, it is important to work together towards a common goal: and teamwork is needed! Community partnership is an innovative and flexible way to bring mutual benefits to both partners (Community Pty Ltd).

Benefits of Partnership More effective and efficient delivery of programs and eliminates unnecessary duplication of efforts Maximize resources Opens new opportunities for staff Audience expansion Working as a non-profit organization can be difficult at times for many different reasons. Do we have the money? The materials? The attendance that we would like to see? There are many benefits of forming community partnerships. In many communities, nonprofits are performing similar projects or programs. Partnering for these program can help both organizations deliver more effective and efficient programs. This will also help eliminate duplicate efforts.

Maximizing Resources Funds Staff Time Resources Forming partnerships allows organizations to maximize their resources. Such resources may include financial funds, working professionals, and shared research. Within a partnership, the organization is sharing the cost of production which may include materials, working facility, and staff. Sharing these expenses is very helpful to both organizations in the partnership; costing them less out of pocket. The amount of time invested into the common goal per professional may be cut a percentage as they are sharing the workload as well. Research is also a resource that is being maximized by forming a partnership. Different organizations may be able to shed light on their expertise to combine information for the common goal. Again, this maximizes the research given to the program and back out to the community.

Opening New Opportunities Leadership Development Program Planning Networking Partnering with another organization may also allow employees new opportunities. Employees may be able to lead the project/program or they may learn something during the process. Staff can be included in decision making, group meetings, and conference calls. Having these opportunities allow non-profits to build networks within your community.

Audience Expansion Accessing new clients Merging mailing lists Building business partners Expanding brand presence And a huge benefit of creating a partnership is expanding your audience. Organizations in a partnership can pass along information about the project/program to their contacts to include mailing lists, clients, business partners, other branches of their organization, acquaintances, or other colleagues (Andruszka, 2014).

WHO?! Local State-wide National or international Public or Private Entities Community-Based Academic Organizations Who can we join forces with to form a strong community partnership? Just about anyone! Community partnership may include local, state, national, international, public, community-based, private and academic organizations. These are all prime examples of who we can reach out to to partner with. One of the great things about Extension and our program areas are just how wide-reaching our impact can be. Extension professionals thrive when we connect with people. When looking into community-based partnerships, seek out organizations that are working alongside you on the front lines of your community. Many of times, these local non-profits will share the same values as you do (Snow, 2012).

Local Opportunities Who or what organizations do you have in your communities that you could partner with? What are some examples of common goals shared between these organizations? What could you ask for when seeking a new partnership? Break participants into groups, and provide big paper and markers. Give 10 minutes to brainstorm WHO/WHAT organizations they have in their communities that they can partner with. Have them think about common goals between organizations. What could you ask for? Kat and Brooke circulate to hear how groups are doing. We have about 40 people signed up (!) so I’m thinking 8 groups??

Keys to Success Create a shared vision and mission Set clear expectations and establish goals Identify and utilize the each partner’s strengths Support partner’s limitations To build a successful partnership, you must first create a vision and mission of your teamwork. This created partnership must be on the same track, or problems could arise. The overall vision and mission or objectives and methods need to be the same to be successful in a partnership. Giving the two organizations a combined vision and mission is giving the partnership purpose and will help define what your organizations are working towards. Once the organizations have created a vision and a mission, it is important to set clear expectations and goals for your newfound group. What do you expect from the partnership? How do you see Dan contributing to the mission? How do you divide the workload? Who addresses what? What is the partnership’s goal and objective? What do we want at the end of this project or program? When determining expectations and goals, communication is key. Share your thoughts of the program and listen to what the other wants from the program as well. When building a partnership, another tip to being successful is recognizing and utilizing your partner’s strengths. Some may be more obvious than others, but underlying strengths may be overlooked. Take some time and make notes of your own personal strengths and ask your colleagues and partners to do the same. When finished, sit together and discuss how this can be helpful to your partnership and find ways to apply it to your mission. Be supportive of your partner’s limitations. Limitations can be anything to include strategy, service, marketing, personnel management, financial management, or even administration. It’s important to identify these limitations early on in your partnership, and make a plan on how to manage them (7 Tips for a Successful Partnership).

Steps to forming a partnership Coordination Cooperation Collaboration Partnerships So how do you actually plan to form a partnership?? There are four steps that results in a partnership. After the first three C’s, (Coordination, Cooperation, and Collaboration) a partnership begins to develop. Roles and responsibilities are being developed and defined, and there becomes a feeling of, “us.” During this final step, organizations may begin sharing resources such as materials, work space, staff, or financial funds. Overall, there is now a vision for this newfound group (Snow, 2012).

What do each of you offer? What’s your motivation? Exchanging information The first step often starts with coordination. Coordinator is when the organizations learn about the services and clients served by each other. They also learn about the organization’s motivation for participating in a partnership. Within this step, resources and self-interests are defined to one another. At this time, there may also be an exchange of information and materials.

Target audience identification Emerging strategies The second step is cooperation. During this time, the two organizations determine their target audience and recognizes the motivation behind forming the partnership. There may be a minimal agreement, or the organization may still be defining their roles and contribution. But during this step, strategies start to emerge.

Building Trust and Respect New ideas emerge The third step; collaboration. These organizations are realizing the values of each other. They are beginning to trust and respect one another, while understanding the benefits for each partner. Innovative ideas are being introduced to meet a common problem. With collaboration, organizations really begin to work together on a specific project to reach their target audience. They begin to put their thoughts into writing.

Define roles & responsibilities The feeling of “us” Sharing of resources After the first three C’s, (Coordination, Cooperation, and Collaboration) a partnership begins to develop. Roles and responsibilities are being developed and defined, and there becomes a feeling of, “us.” During this final step, organizations may begin sharing resources such as materials, work space, staff, or financial funds. Overall, there is now a vision for this newfound group (Snow, 2012).

Examples and Lessons Learned Now we hopefully have you thinking about what groups are already in your communities that you can see as potential partners. Common partners to extension are schools, banks, farm bureau, NRCS, conservation boards… Kat and Brooke each share some thoughts/examples/lessons learned If time allows, invite others to share from the audience

References 7 Tips for a Successful Business Partnership. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/partnership-tips.htm Andruszka, R. (2014, October 09). 4 Ways Partnerships Can Benefit Your Organization More Than You Even Knew. Retrieved from https://www.themuse.com/advice/4-ways-partnerships-can-benefit-your-organization-more-than-you-even-knew Community Pty Ltd. (n.d.). What is a Community-Business Partnership. Retrieved from https://www.ourcommunity.com.au/business/view_article.jsp?articleId=891 Snow, J. (2012). Engaging Your Community: A Toolkit for Partnership, Collaboration, and Action. Retrieved from https://www.jsi.com/JSIInternet/Inc/Common/_download_pub.cfm?id=14333&lid=3

Thank you Brooke Blessington bbless@iastate.edu (641) 278-6277 Katharinna Bain kbain@iastate.edu (641) 622-26080 Thank you for attending our talk today. What questions can we answer for you?