How do families, schools and communities develop partnerships to provide comprehensive, integrated services for families and children? A partnership starts with a common vision and common goals. Forming a partnership can be accomplished, but it may take time to find all the partners necessary to make the partnership successful from the start. Once the decision is made to develop these partnerships, a commitment to change must be adopted. Support can be found from teachers, parents, community members, business partners, and school district officials.

The partnership developed depends on the needs of the community, the size and diversity of the population to be served, and the scope of the services involved. Understanding the needs of families and children in the community is one of the most crucial steps to initiating family-school-community partnerships. A community needs and resources assessment can answer the questions what do families and children need, what are the available resources and what is not available. The current system of service delivery to families and children must be explored. From this exploration, resources and gaps in services will be identified. From this community assessment a clear picture of necessary partners will begin to take focus.

Conducting a Community Needs/Strengths Assessment
How to Use the Community Assessment
Determining Mission Goals and Objectives
Strategies for Successful Partnerships
Maintaining Collaboration

Conducting a Community Needs/Strengths Assessment
Knowing and understanding the current strengths, concerns and conditions of children, families, and the community are crucial to defining the comprehensive services that need to be offered, and who will offer them. A community assessment may uncover hidden resources and assets, and how to access them, while emerging needs and gaps in services may also come to light. To ensure equal input into this process, it is recommended that a facilitator aid in the assessment of needs and resources -- one who is experienced in helping community members identify common needs and who sees the goals of the entire community.

Guiding principles for community assessment:
• The partnership's vision should guide the assessment.
• The assessment should focus on specific information, one topic at a time.
• An assessment is an ongoing process.
• The assessment reflects the diversity of the community from multiple perspectives, taking into account cultural, linguistic, ethnic and economic diversity.
• An information coordinator, with first hand knowledge of the community, can facilitate information gathering effectively.
• An assessment should be tied to ongoing evaluation of the impact of the service delivery system.

How to Use the Community Assessment
Putting the Pieces Together suggests asking these important questions when putting the community assessment together:

1. To what extent do assets of individuals and agencies in the community match the interests, concerns, and needs of children and families?
2. Are the resources and services available to families appropriate and of acceptable quality?
3. Are services, resources and programs accessible to families and children?
4. Are the assets of families, informal associations, and community institutions being used to the best advantage of children and families?
5. What do families and community groups want to see happen?
6. How does your partnership's vision compare with the information collected by the community assessment?

Determining Mission Goals, Objectives
Determine the "why" of your partnership. When partners define a shared vision of a system of education and human services that is effective for children and families, shared ownership begins. The mission statement speaks to the collaboration's role in realizing the shared vision. It includes the goals and responsibility in planning, allocating resources, and evaluating outcomes.

The publication, Together We Can, describes developing a mission statement as developing a community presence. From the mission statement and goals the strategic plan is generated. The strategic plan includes objectives that would be accomplished through the partnership, which includes:

• Focusing on a designated population (i.e., neighborhood, school district, etc.)
• Conducting an analysis of leadership, assets, needs and existing resources; defining target outcomes
• Designing an interagency service delivery prototype
• Developing the technical tools or systems of collaboration (such as intake systems, case management, communication, and information management systems)
• Formalizing the interagency relationships with interagency agreements

Strategies for Successful Partnerships
Many factors influence the success of interagency collaborations. No two partnerships progress in exactly the same way or in the same time frame. In the final analysis, each interagency effort must proceed in a way that is consistent with its unique circumstances and composition. Nevertheless, the literature on collaboration offers some guidelines that have wide applicability:

1. Involve all key players from the start. Include representatives from the targeted population. Collaborative decisions and activities must receive widespread support and recognition. Diverse membership ensures that partnership activities will take into account the various needs, interests, and talents of teachers, parents, the school, and students.

   Be inclusive, there are many different groups and perspectives, especially for partnerships planning comprehensive services for a broad age group of children and their families.

   Create cross-cultural teams that represent the cultural groups in your community, especially when you are working in a culturally diverse community.

2. Ensure the collaborative has leadership that is visionary, willing to take risks, and facilitates change. All innovators must work collaboratively to promote changes in legislation and practices, which impact the security, health, and economic welfare of families. The circle of responsibility includes all at the national, state, and local community levels.
   • Inform state leaders and legislators, about the benefits of collaborations, the strength of this type of collaboration and a description of the process
   • Develop and use a public education /public relations campaign
   • Become advocates for and measure the continuity of care and education from early childhood through school age and beyond
   • Network!

3. Establish a shared vision of how the collaborative should progress and of the expected outcomes for children and families served by the collaborative partners.

4. Create partnerships within the framework of an existing or continuing structure, such as a community council, parent resource center, school health clinic, etc.

5. Promote trust and collaboration by getting to know partners, invest time in building personal relationships, establishing mutual respect. Remember that change begins with individuals, not institutions. Agency representatives must be allowed to take time from routine responsibilities to meet and interact with each other so trust and respect on an individual level can be generated. Learning to collaborate takes time, energy, and in some cases, resources to allow representatives from disparate agencies to meet and define their joint purpose. It is through personal interactions that the trusting relationships across agencies that sustain the growing pains associated with systemic change are nurtured.

   In some cases, sites studied in the Northwest spent quality time developing a joint mission statement and agreements to create new ways to address policy and funding by the collaboration. This work served them well, as these school and agency partners were more aware of the big picture. Players at these sites began to take a more systemic look at their activities. They were interested in measuring changes to the system as a whole, as well as program or project efficacy. It affected their goals, outcomes and evaluation of both.

6. Build ownership at all levels. Define roles and responsibility as soon as possible in the partnership so that all may be accountable. Commitment to change must be mobilized at all organizational levels of member agencies and among community members involved in the collaborative.

   Joyce Epstein describes the Action Team for school, family, and community partnerships as the "action arm" of a school improvement team. Consisting of teachers, parents, parent-association representatives, administrators, community members, students and other personnel of the school, the Action Team takes the lead in assessing present practices, organizing options for new partnerships, implementing selected activities, evaluating next steps, and continuing to improve and coordinate practices for family involvement. (Source: School, Family Community Partnerships, and Your Handbook for Action. http://scov.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/index.htm

7. Establish communication and decision-making processes that recognize disagreement among actors as a part of the process and establish ways to deal with conflict constructively.

   Successful partnerships are collaborations that build team relationships, focus a group's vision, and build group consensus. Making Collaborations Successful: A Collection of Useful Activities for Team Building, is a tool that can help create a purposeful participatory process for partnerships. Since team building is a process of shared experiences that does not happen overnight, these activities can be used over time, as the team needs them.

8. Institutionalize change by encouraging member agencies to include collaborative goals in their institutional mandates and by earmarking funds for collaborative activities. Schools need to be active partners in the decision-making. Children will be bringing problems from outside school to the classroom. Collaborating with school resources and families enhances both academic and nonacademic skills for children. Schools are natural sites for promotion of positive environments nurturing child development and prevention of environmental risk factors in children's lives. Family-school-community partnerships offer solutions to building the school's capacity to help improve the lives of their children and families.

   Essential elements of promising family and community involvement programs in education start with schools who have adopted written policies and administrative support for family and community involvement. These policies and supports include: training for staff and families on a partnership approach; two-way communication between staff and parents; networking within and outside the district; and evaluation. The school board must support efforts of individual schools in the district through official district policy on family and community involvement and then provides administrative support for policy implementation. Individual schools in the district develop their own strategies for implementation with support from the central office as necessary.

9. Identify partnerships that are working and why they are working. Build in evaluation of the partnership process. Use this guide as a starting point for discussion on developing partnerships with Families. Developing a Partnership Model: Self-Assessment Form (pdf format).

10. Identify current needs for research data, including "grass-roots" concerns, in order to keep up with changing demographics and indicators of child and family well-being.

Maintaining Collaboration
Collaboration is a growing, consuming entity in itself. It requires nurturing and nourishment in the form of communication and shared responsibility. Communication includes sharing of ideas and news, acknowledging of accomplishments, and reflection and feedback for growth.

From planning to implementation, partners need to be clear in the joint mission and purpose for systems reform. Shared understanding regarding approaches and services to families must be evident, and there should be good understanding of the holistic nature of the various initiatives. In order to keep the collaborative efforts alive with existing and new staff, networks among all staff are free flowing, keeping the balance of preserving the current system and services and working toward new collaborations that provide new or combined services.

Monitor the process of the partnership as much as you would the interventions or services provided. Work on problems as they arise -- don't let them be pushed under the table. A neutral party can help facilitate group process.

Place primary importance on serving the family and insuring the growth and development of all its members. A family-centered philosophy recognizes the need to support families with services that families themselves identify, rather than attempting to remedy family deficits with services prescribed by professionals or other community members. All partners and their services are important to the community. Acknowledge that there are domains of expertise. When you are the expert, listen first.

If the complex issues of families are addressed so families are empowered to select their own solutions, all members can be successful in our communities; families will rely less on agencies to meet basic needs and become more capable in nurturing and providing for their children.

Resources:
Bruner, C. (1991). Thinking Collaboratively: Ten Questions and answers to help policy makers improve children's services. Washington, DC: Education and Human Services Consortium.

Winer, M. & Ray, K. (1994). Collaboration handbook: Creating, sustaining, and enjoying the journey. Saint Paul, MN: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. The Collaboration Handbook is a hands-on, step-by-step guide that demonstrates how collaboration within and between groups helps people accomplish their goals more effectively.
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