Building Partnership Capacity and Sustainability in Financially Challenging Times

Introduction Creating and sustaining quality partnerships requires strategic planning, continuous operational reflection, and innovation. This is especially true in an era of declining resources for public universities and communities. In this financially challenging climate, we present strategies for long term partnership development and capacity building, mobilization of resources, and long-term systemic change focused on eliminating gender and racial educational inequality.

Partnership Question From the outset, the core objective was to design a sustainable, evidence-based intervention. Many of our partners had participated in other initiatives, research programs, and projects, only to see them discontinued when grants funds ended. Determined not to follow that path, a central question guidingour work has been: How can innovations produced by a university community partnership be sustained when grant funds end?

Conclusion Many university-school district partnerships face challenges inherent in large urban school districts, i.e., funding limitations and competing priorities, staffing and student transiency in schools, and sustaining faculty involvement. However, we believe that by focusing on capacity building and sustainability from the beginning, it is possible to build a partnership that will have long-lasting impact for students, parents, and the community.

The Promoting Academic Success (PAS) Initiative1

PAS is an initiative designed to improve academic outcomes for young African American, Latino, and American Indian boys, 4 to 10 years old, in a medium-sized urban school district. The purpose of theinitiative is to prevent the very real and growing achievement gap of minority males as they progress through middle school and high school. To that end, the collaboration between the PAS school district and the university conducts:

• Professional development for teachers/principals/teacher leaders

• Intergenerational mentoring for young minority boys

• Extended school learning opportunities for participants

PAS Partners • The PAS partners include a local school district, the local Head Start Office, local city

government, the Michigan Works Workforce Investment Act, and Michigan State University. The PAS partnership may be represented in the following organizational chart:

Program Element Activities Increased learning

opportunities for students • Redirect federal or state targeted funding, i.e., Title I funds, toafterschool and summer school learning programs, using project data to document need and impact.

• Complete teacher-principal how-to manuals on effective classroomstrategies and practices employed in conducting these programs.

• Raise level of institutional awareness and commitment to addressingdisparities and the need for continued professional development using local and Title II funds.

• Create a community marketing and promotion plan to reach allstakeholders.

• Recommend a board appointed committee to monitor progress inreducing disparities.

• Require professional development on gender and racial/ethnic educationalinequality.

• Leverage resources to continue the mentoring program by expandingpartnerships with nontraditional stakeholders: Michigan Works Workforce Investment Act; local city government; and MSU service-learning America Readsstudents

Teacher professional development

Mentoring

Principles for Developing Partnership Capacity and Sustainability2

• Ensure open, honest, and frequent communication

• Build transparency and visibility to all stakeholders

• Create an environment of shared decision making

• Address challenges and barriers as a team

• Regularly evaluate progress

• Institutionalize best practices

Strategies for Developing Partnership and Sustainability Based on PAS

Initiative Partnership1. Establish benchmarks for emerging, developing and sustaining levels of implementation

2. Ensure commitment and ownership of the issue by all partners from all levels of each institution so that the initiative is not dependent on a single individual

3. Identify critical roles for all stakeholders and help them to assume leadership in those roles

4. Address race, ethnicity, and gender in a straightforward, evidence based fashion

5. Use data generated by the initiative to maintain focus on the objective, outcome desired and track progress towards goals

6. Discuss how interventions can be adapted on an on-going basis as interventions are not 100% replicable, especially in community contexts

7. Expand the partnership to include other key community stakeholders

8. Create a systemic partnership, so all involved are bound in multiple ways

Illustrative Examples of Sustainability Plans Developed in the PAS Initiative

Patricia Farrell, Marvin McKinney, Gabriela Saenz, Curtis Lewis, Karlin Tichenor, and KyungSook Lee, Michigan State University; James Davis, Lansing School District National Outreach Scholarship Conference 2010

© 2010 Michigan State University Board of Trustees. MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer. 1. *PAS is funded by the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, City of Lansing, Michigan Works, the Lansing School district, and Michigan State University Outreach and Engagement. 2. Barnes, J. V., Altimare, E. L., Farrell, P. A., Brown, R. E., Burnett III, C. R., Gamble, L., Davis, J. (2009). Creating and Sustaining Authentic Partnerships with Community in a Systemic Model. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 13(4) 15-29.

University Outreach and Engagement Michigan State UniversityKellogg Center, Garden Level East Lansing, MI 48824-1022Phone: (517) 353-8977 • Fax: (517) 432-9541E-mail: outreach@msu.edu • Web: outreach.msu.edu