Each partner program brought its strengths to our collaboration, so that we find we’re doing better things together than we were doing separately.
Building a community partnership is a grass roots, local effort. Those who choose to be part of the collaboration will develop new relationships, new roles, and creative, integrative ways of reaching mutual goals. Partners leverage the strengths they each bring to the preschool partnership to develop a collaborative, high quality early childhood program in their community.
First, begin the conversation.
Bring together all the stakeholders in the community who are interested in early childhood education and begin talking. Stakeholders might include school districts, special education programs, Head Start, early childhood care providers, Parents As Teachers, Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, city, and county providers.
After a flood in Coffeyville, the community identified early childhood education as a priority in the city, and conversations began.
“We started an action planning team that included the school district, mental health organization, Parents As Teachers, special education, early childhood care facilities, SEK-CAP Head Start, and the Greenbush Partnership (migrant services). That committee started meeting once a month, and it really started to grow. We found that there was a real need for early childhood education, and nobody had ever talked about it in a group setting before. It’s usually up to the school district to talk about education, but this process allowed everybody to become part of the conversation.”
--Robert Morton, Ed.D., Superintendent, Coffeyville USD
Next, explore and understand the meaning of “collaboration.”
Community partners collaborate and work together to provide early childhood services. "What is the difference between coordination, cooperation, and collaboration, and why is it important as an early childhood professional to understand the difference?" Misty D. Goosen, Ed.S., asks these questions and offers some answers in her article, "Cooperation, Coordination, Collaboration: Asking the Hard Questions", published in the Kansas Inservice Training System (KITS) newsletter, Volume 18, Issue 4, Fall 2009.
Collaborating and forging effective partnerships are complex and multi-dimensional. Community partners may have different goals for collaboration. Each may identify with different points on the collaboration continuum and strive to achieve various levels of collaboration.
A major goal of the grant project is to help each community move along the continuum of collaboration towards its respective goal. A Power Point presentation, "Taking Collaboration to the Next Level: Assessing and Enhancing Your Partnership" provides a more in-depth explanation of this topic.
Then, develop a strategic plan.
Strategic planning is a critical process for building collaborative preschool programs. Through this process, community partners discuss and define. . .
- Their vision - what the end result of their partnership will look like
- Their mission - the purpose or role the partnership will play in moving toward the vision
- Their guiding principles - the values and beliefs that will guide their work together
- Their goals and objectives - what they want to achieve, and how they will measure success
Learn more about the steps in the strategic planning process.
The strategic plan provides a foundation for the more detailed program planning that follows. Starting to design programs and operations without a strategic plan is like building a house without a foundation - it may last for a while, but it is not nearly as strong and stable. In addition, the strategic planning process is an important part of building strong relationships, which is also critical for the partnership's success.
Rossville’s Strategic Planning Process
By Jim McDaniel, Superintendent, Kaw Valley USD
Through the strategic planning process, we were able to recognize what each partner would bring to the table, and the kinds of things that we would want as “have-tos” in our project. We asked ourselves, “What are some mandates of Head Start that we would certainly want to address if we’re going to have Head Start children involved in our preschool program? What are some things that we would have to do for special education and for the Four-Year-Old At-Risk program?”
We were able, through the strategic planning process, to discuss all of these things. We addressed everyone’s concerns. We were able to address individual turf areas and the things that we would need to protect in order to maintain quality.
As a group, we went far beyond these things and explored what we could do together -- how could we collaborate, truly collaborate, and have fully integrated classrooms that included Head Start kids, special education kids, Four-Year-Old At-Risk kids and all other kids. We discovered how we were alike in what we were already doing to create quality in our respective programs. We also realized that by combining our efforts, our differences could add new strengths and more quality to our collaborative preschool program for kids and families.
Our strategic planning process helped build the strong relationships we have with our partners and project team. The Rossville Strategic Plan we developed is a foundation for our preschool program and serves as a guide for our other program plans, such as our 2010-11 Monthly Task List.
Consider involving a facilitator in the planning process.
An outside facilitator, who is not associated with any of the partner groups, is highly recommended for developing partnerships. The facilitator provides an objective, neutral perspective, as well as skills in managing the group's process. This frees the partners to focus on the content of their discussions.
The facilitator typically does the following:
- Works with participants in developing the agendas for meetings,
- Assists the group in staying focused on the purpose and goals of the meeting,
- Maintains flexibility with where the group is, as well as where they need to go,
- Notices the "elephants" in the room,
- Listens carefully, ask questions and offer suggestions when appropriate,
- Provides observations and feedback about the group's process,
- Helps develop and then enforce the ground rules of the group, and
- Provides written meeting notes.
Why is the facilitator's objectivity and neutrality important?
Productive discussion and decision-making occurs most effectively in a safe environment that allows all parties to provide their thoughts and perceptions. A facilitator who maintains a neutral and objective position helps ensure that everyone is heard, and all ideas are explored.
