Building Local Partnerships
for America Goes Back to School

Launching an America Goes Back to School activity can be a challenge--don't go it alone! America Goes Back to School is about building local partnerships for learning in every school and community across this nation. Working together can sometimes be difficult. To make America Goes Back to School a successful venture in your community, you'll need a planning team made up of representatives from all over your community. Members of the America Goes Back to School team may not know one another, but you all have one thing in common from the get-go--an interest in and dedication to helping children learn. A strong core planning team provide a foundation for a strong America Goes Back to School partnership.

Here are some tips for true collaboration:

Work Together. Consult a wide variety of groups and citizens active in the community from the beginning of the project. Local groups and citizens must buy in and feel ownership by determining their own needs and recognizing their own capacity.

Assess Needs. Help participating groups and citizens assess the needs and identify assets to meet them within the community. Develop a checklist or an assessment instrument to help gather information, with questions such as: What do we see as barriers to children's learning in our community? What are we currently doing to support children's learning in the community? How well are children being served, including children with disabilities and limited English proficient children? Think about demographic information, cultural awareness and appreciation, and language issues as you begin planning. Identify communication links and networks, so you understand how information travels and how people get connected in the community. One network might be the school system. Another equally important network might be community leaders who wear different hats (e.g., a business leader who is also a member of a faith community or a Scout leader).

Survey Resources. Find out how your community would be willing to help. Think about all sectors of your community. For example, talk to employers about giving their employees time off to go back to school with their children on the first day of school, or to volunteer on a regular basis. Reach out to senior citizen groups to enlist them as reading tutors. Approach the college or university in your community to see what they have to offer. Work with local arts organizations and Museums.

Share Information. Share information about resources that exist outside of the community. Ask community representatives from national association and organizations about activities happening at the national level and about resources that may be available to local members to help in your planning and partnerships.

Seek Out Experienced Collaborators. Are there people in your community or state who are experienced and talented in building teams and coalitions? Ask them to give a presentation on building partnerships to set the stage. Get information and encourage discussion on how to make sure that the right players are at the table; on what the individual roles and responsibilities of participants should be, including the role of the coordinator; on how to work with the school system and schools; and on examples of successful local partnerships.

Set Goals. Set clear goals for your partnership. Make sure these goals fit with the aims of the participating organizations and people. Encourage involvement in a way that "makes sense" to your community--a way that will spark interest, fulfill needs, and match community capacity. For example, in Bennington, Vermont, small businessman Terry Ehrich pondered, "If the first day of hunting season is a state holiday, why not the first day of school?" That question resonated with the community and helped make his first-day-of-school celebration a bigger success.

Decide on Measures of Success. Based on the goals you set, what are the indicators of success? Agree on a set of indicators and how to measure them. Find out how other community organizations have measured their outcomes. School districts and businesses routinely evaluate performance. Ask for their advice and help in creating consistent and realistic evaluation tools, including means for gathering anecdotal evidence, surveys, and other reporting mechanisms. Include evaluation as a key ingredient in your partnership from the very beginning.

Planning Worksheet: Making Plans