NSIP Inclusion Weekly: Creating Effective Partnerships

[Announcement from he-sl listserv]

One of the National Service Inclusion Project’s (NSIP) longstanding goals has been to assist organizations on how to create partnerships, both within and among states, which contribute toward inclusive and self-sustaining National Service programs. Many state commissions, having collaborated with organizations like university centers for excellence in disability, vocational rehabilitation agencies, independent living centers, family groups, and more, have created measured inroads and opportunities for people with and without disabilities to participate in service and grow in post service endeavors. Engaging in this process of creating and maintaining effective partnerships will not only help programs accomplish their goals but also measure the effectiveness of their collaborative work.

Adapting information from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/events/niiw/index.html), NSIP has created a helpful workbook that helps you build and maintain effective partnerships, available for download here: http://serviceandinclusion.org/index.php?page=iw#partner. It is part of a larger training module aimed at maximizing disability inclusion in your state. Among its materials are four steps to creating and maintaining effective partnerships:

-Identify the Right Partners: Evaluate both what you would like to accomplish through partnerships and what organizations are available.

-Establishing Partnerships: Identify who and how you will collaborate as well as the scope of the partnership.

-Working with Partners: Create clear pathways of your mutual plans and how said plans will be implemented in a way that benefits the partnership.

-Assessing and Strengthening Your Partnership: Identify whether or not the collaboration is having the intended result you expected and how to improve upon it.

Many of the questions and tools involved in reviewing these steps asks you to assess not only what your goals are, but what you expect to accomplish as a result of those goals. Reviewing these goals can be particularly helpful when measuring the outcomes of both your work within the program and your work with partners.

We would like to hear from you. If you have created a state inclusion team or partnerships, how has collaborating changed your program for the better? How have you been able to measure change in your program?

Please email your responses to nsip@umb.edu. NSIP will take your responses and publish them in a subsequent Inclusion Weekly. Discussion of your team’s efforts and experiences could be very helpful for others in the field. We look forward to hearing from you.

Lastly, we would also like to encourage you to reach out to NSIP on creating an inclusion team in your state and/or for any questions about creating effective partnerships. Here is a link to our Train-the-Trainer Manual on collaborations: http://serviceandinclusion.org/ttt/node/214.

Yours in service,

Chad

Find NSIP Online-

Website: www.serviceandinclusion.org

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The National Service Inclusion Project (NSIP) is a training and technical assistance provider on disability inclusion, under a cooperative agreement (#08TAHMA001) from Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). NSIP partners with the Association on University Centers on Disability, National Council on Independent Living, Association on Higher Education and Disability and National Down Syndrome Congress to build connections between disability organizations and all CNCS grantees, including national directs, to increase the participation of people with disabilities in national service.