Community-Centered Partnerships

Worksheet #2: Who Are Your Partners?

Before reading this section of the module, take a few minutes and write down all of the stakeholders and organizations you have a partnership with in support of teen services.

After coming up with your list, write down the ways in which that partnership is demonstrated. For example, what do you partner on, how is the partnership setup, why do you define what you are thinking about as a partnership?

Now ask yourself, is the partnership successful? Why? Why not?

Once you have answered those questions, read on, and as you read, consider your answers and how your partnership work does and doesn’t fit in with the ideas presented here.

A community partnership is a formal relationship between a library and one or more local organizations or individuals who join forces to support the mutual goals of all involved. Keep in mind that an activity you design and implement may be the start of a partnership but is not necessarily a partnership. For example, if a library staff member works with the local school to design and develop a reading or other type of resource list, that’s an activity that the two groups work on together. A partnership can come from that collaboration but in order to get to the partnership level several pieces need to be in place:

Trusted relationships between all involved. In order to have a successful partnership that is focused on a mutual goal or goals, all those working within the partnership need to trust each other to make quality decisions, to be a team player, to communicate when needed, to be open and honest, and so on. Without the trusted relationships partnerships can not be maintained in most cases beyond the collaboration level.
Interest in each other’s work. Partners need to be willing to hear about each other’s successes and challenges and engage in those conversations on a regular basis. Partners that learn about each other’s work on a regular basis are able to grow their work together and expand on what their original ideas for partnership were.
Time to grow and maintain. A partnership that is more than collaboration requires all involved to take time to work with each other and learn about each other. No one should expect that a partnership can be built quickly or that partners working together can begin that work without taking time to get to know each other and each other’s institutions.

While mutual goals are an important part of partnerships, unless relationships based on trust and an interest in each other’s work are in place, it can be difficult to sustain a partnership. For example, teachers and librarians often work towards similar goals. However, without a trusted relationship in place, it may be difficult for a teacher to partner with a librarian. Until the teacher knows that the librarian has similar views on teaching and learning, has similar interests when it comes to working with teens, etc, the mutual goal will have little effect. Taking time therefore to build a relationship where trust is built is essential.

Partnerships are not static

As you learn about your community, you will build relationships that can lead to partnerships. And, you will have opportunities to partner with different people or groups to leverage community assets and meet community needs. Keep in mind that as assets and needs change, partnerships will also change. Being community-centered therefore requires analyzing partnerships on a regular basis to determine if they still serve a purpose in reaching a continued mutual goal in support of the community. If not, legacy partnerships should be let go in order to build all partner’s capacity to be working to support community needs.

Asset Framing

Rethinking Partnerships