Skip to main content
Center for Civic Engagement

Developing and Designing a Partnership

Here are some questions to ask when considering a potential campus partnership:

  • Does this project meet the needs of our organization, solve a problem, or address a project (or a small part of a larger project)?
  • How many students can we accommodate?
  • Do we have staff capacity to supervise/provide oversight? Do they need on-site supervision?
  • Do the students have the necessary skills or requirements to work with our organization?
  • What do we need the students to complete before they can start? E.g. standard onboarding, orientation, training, paperwork/waivers, background checks.
  • How often will the faculty/staff/lead student check in on the students and your organization? What process can be established if there are concerns (e.g. not showing up, tardiness, not fulfilling responsibilities, etc.)?

Additionally, community engagement activities can take place in groups or with individual students and may take various forms, such as:

  • Placement: students work on-site with an organization weekly throughout most of the semester
  • Presentation: students research/prepare information of value and benefit to the community organization and present it in a formal presentation
  • Product: students produce a product or written document for an organization
  • Project: students develop and implement a project/event/activity for an organization

Developing Your Partnership

  1. Clearly define and agree upon the goals of the project. Discuss how the goals for your organization and the faculty/staff/student learning goals will be accomplished. Determine if it would be helpful to see the course syllabus.
  2. Discuss the time commitment of all parties.
  3. Plan a time to provide an overview of your organization such as vision, mission, program, services, how their work will benefit the organization etc. Also discuss expectations like dress, hygiene, behavior, what to bring/not bring, or safety. Determine where and when is the best place to deliver this information (come to the class or group meeting, students come to your office).
  4. Establish a plan for regular communication with the faculty/staff/lead student.
  5. Ask about expectations for your organization role in evaluating the student. What does the faculty want? What are you comfortable with?
  6. Practice flexibility, understanding, and empathy. Partnerships take time to develop and will have an occasional challenge especially when working with undergraduate students.
  7. After the project is complete, honestly evaluate the partnership. Were all parties goals/needs met? Has your organization been enhanced?
  8. Discuss if this partnership can be repeated or modified for the future. Is there an opportunity for a long-term, sustainable partnership?

Resources to Guide Partnership Development

The Center for Civic Engagement offers many resources to support partnerships, including the templates below. Please reach out to us to work with a CCE staff member in implementing any of the sample resources below or to learn more at CivicEngagement@ilstu.edu. 

  • Summary of Expectations Template: Lay a strong foundation for your partnership by aligning on key elements from the start. This template helps define project goals, individual contributions, mutual expectations, commitment levels, and timelines, ensuring everyone begins on the same page.
  • Communication Preferences: Set clear communication expectations early in your collaboration. This tool supports you in deciding how and when to communicate, how to address any communication challenges, and how project updates will be shared with other stakeholders.
  • Goal Setting and Planning: Foster a shared vision and aligned efforts by using this resource to set common goals. It also helps break down broad objectives into manageable, actionable steps for better planning and execution.
  • Managing Priorities and Expectations: Clarify roles, responsibilities, and task priorities before launching your project. This tool is especially helpful in identifying the urgency and importance of various tasks to manage ongoing projects effectively.
  • SWOT Analysis: Evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within your partnership using this tool. It’s designed to help all involved parties maximize potential and prepare for challenges ahead.

Principles of Partnership

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) is a longstanding association that advocates for health equity in communities by partnering universities and community organizations. Their Principles of Partnership are easily applied to other community-campus partnerships, regardless of social issues, and they are widely accepted as the standard for partnerships nationally.

Community organizations and faculty are encouraged to use and adapt these CCPH principles as guidelines when developing partnerships.

  1. The Partnership forms to serve a specific purpose and may take on new goals over time.
  2. The Partnership agrees upon mission, values, goals, measurable outcomes and processes for accountability.
  3. The relationship between partners in the Partnership is characterized by mutual trust, respect, genuineness, and commitment.
  4. The Partnership builds upon identified strengths and assets, but also works to address needs and increase capacity of all partners.
  5. The Partnership balances power among partners and enables resources among partners to be shared.
  6. Partners make clear and open communication an ongoing priority in the Partnership by striving to understand each other’s needs and self-interests, and developing a common language.
  7. Principles and processes for the Partnership are established with the input and agreement of all partners, especially for decision-making and conflict resolution.
  8. There is feedback among all stakeholders in the Partnership, with the goal of continuously improving the Partnership and its outcomes.
  9. Partners share the benefits of the Partnership’s accomplishments.
  10. Partnerships can dissolve, and when they do, need to plan a process for closure.
  11. Partnerships consider the nature of the environment within which they exist as a principle of their design, evaluation, and sustainability.
  12. The Partnership values multiple kinds of knowledge and life experience

Safety Policies

Risk is present everywhere and everyday. There is potential risk and uncertainty associated with students leaving campus and working on-site with a community organization. Risk management helps us to identify those risks and make plans to mitigate and manage the risks.

Safety

Community partners are strongly encouraged to conduct their own safety procedure training with all students working on-site. Community organizations can also work with their faculty partner to cover topics such as:

  • Transportation (routes to get to the organization, parking, bus routes)
  • Not going into neighborhoods alone
  • Building security, entrance procedures, after hours access
  • Storage of personal items
  • Expectations for working with vulnerable populations (photo posting, being alone with, confidentiality)
  • Procedures if an injury or incident occurs
  • Emergency procedures
  • Emergency contact information
  • Inclement weather
  • Dress code
  • Prohibited behavior/activities

If a student is conducting themselves in an unsafe manor and unresponsive to having that behavior addressed, contact your faculty partner.

Background Checks

In January 2018, Illinois State University implemented the Protection of Minors Policy. This policy requires all students, employees, and volunteers participating in Illinois State University sponsored programs/activities to participate in a training and have a background check. This policy will also be applicable for your partnership with Illinois State if it will involve working with minors.

It is understood that many community organizations may also require all volunteers to have a background check. Please note, however, that Illinois State University requires its own background check regardless of the partnering organization's requirements.

ISU Mandatory Reporting

Faculty, staff, volunteers, and students at Illinois State University are obligated to report suspected acts of child abuse and neglect under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act (ANCRA) and report certain crimes/incidents as required by state and federal law. This mandatory reporting is not restricted to campus and will apply if employees are at partnering organizations.

All University personnel (including student employees) are required to complete Mandatory Reporting Training upon hire, as well as annually during the month of October.