Community Partnerships

Collaborative Community Partnerships 

Finding the right community partners for Everett student projects is a complicated process, because of the unusual nature of the projects students are implementing.  Many community organizations are used to having student interns, where students are working under the guidance of their community ‘sponsor’. But this approach is inappropriate for Everett projects, where students are learning how to do a needs assessment, develop detailed project proposals, and negotiate clear deliverables with their community partners–it is a much more hands-on and independent role than most internships.  On the other hand, students are not yet technical experts, and community partners have to have a realistic understanding of the kinds of help and support Everett students are able to provide, while recognizing and valuing the learning process and social justice goals of our program. 

Thus, our partnership philosophy is rooted in an approach of solidarity, not service (or saviorship).  We look for partners who share our desire for systemic change, along with a commitment to help grow young social justice leaders.  We look for partners with the right fit in terms of organizational development; established enough to be a stable partner, but still small enough so that student support can provide meaningful contributions.  We also look for the right fit in terms of technical need, in which they recognize the potential of incorporating new technological tools into their organizational activities, but don’t yet have the internal technological capacities to develop the work on their own. 

There are a number of key elements of the annual cycle of partnership develop:

• Discovering new partnerships: This includes working with students first to identify priority social justice issues that resonate with their priorities and concerns. Staff of the program then begin reaching out to potential partners working on these issues, explaining the nature of our program, and exploring the level shared commitment to balancing learning objectives for students & outcomes for partners/

• Solidifying partnerships:  Before students begin to work with partners, program staff conduct an initial needs assessment, to discuss possible projects and deliverables.  This process also helps project partners understand the partnership timeline, and both sides develop realistic expectations of levels of engagement, processes of communication, and organizational commitments.  We aim for these understandings to be contained in an MOU signed by both partners. 

• Student project development and implementation: The core of the partnership is rooted in teams of students working directly with community partners.  Students conduct a more detailed needs assessment, and develop a clear detailed project proposal, before they begin actually working on the project itself.  This project proposal has to clearly articulate the social or environmental problem being addressed, the more specific organizational need their project is intended to contribute to solving, clear goals and objectives, with a reasonable time-line and well-articulated deliverables that will be provided to the community partner, a budget and budget narrative, and clear plan for evaluating the impact of their work. The community partners has to approve the proposal, and then Fellows in the program review the proposal and choose to allocate funding (or not) to support the project’s implementation. 

• Monitoring project scope and completion: While students are developing and implementing their project, Everett fellows and executive fellows meet regularly with the student team, providing feedback, and reviewing their practices and progress.  While students are expected to take leadership in the project itself, this regular monitoring provides critical feedback, identifies potential problems early, and can provide an important venue for troubleshooting problems with the community partner. Everett staff are also critical in gathering structured feedback to the program from both the community partner and from students, which help inform a decision to renew a subsequent annual cycle with the community partner or not.