Building Relationships with Community Organizations

as Lisa Eriksson I'm and I'm the manager of community outreach and engagement at station 20 West for the University and we've recently been doing workshops with faculty interested in increasing the level of community engagement in their classes and some of the questions that we often get from faculty are around how to start relationships with community-based organizations this is something that we talk with organizations about regularly and they've given us some feedback for faculty and students who are interested in building relationships the first and most frequently mentioned tip that community organizations give us is to sow seeds early on by getting to know organizations and getting to know their staff getting to know challenges within the organization and also their strengths as well they talked about the need to be curious and approach them with sense of curiosity and not necessarily approaching with answers as well they talked about the importance of being genuine in the partnership and in interactions with stakeholders and lastly they often underscore the importance of meeting even when there isn't deadline for grant or project due throughout the relationship with an organization they mention few other things often one is to add to their cause and not distract from it so be an asset to the organization look for opportunities to be helpful they also often talk about honoring many ways of knowing and respecting community wisdom especially life lessons versus book learning lastly they often mention making sure no harm is done in the interaction both throughout getting to know the organization and stakeholders and throughout the tenure of the relationship throughout the course of project organizations often talk about finding ways to bring value for all involved so ensuring that there is value for the community partner and its stakeholders throughout the relationship following through on commitments is extremely important too relationship into building trust and also building the way for subsequent interactions in the future they also talked about avoiding last-minute demands and think this is something that we all can deeply appreciate that plenty of notice is appreciated on the part of community organizations and oftentimes if possible tangible benefits and that can take the form of perhaps honorarium but it can also take the form of building capacity or contributing to capacity within the organization or within the area that they serve in 2013 we gathered group of community organization leaders and they conveyed what they appreciate in relationship with the University quotation from community organization leaders the strongest relationships with researchers in the past have been with scholars who are also activists allies and engaged in the community this ensures the research is inspired by community need and not merely an academic exercise there's sense of the scholar walking alongside the people living and working in the community that demonstrates shared interests and goals our office spends lot of time with faculty and students providing suggestions for engaging with community organizations and the community as whole and often times folks are coming to meet with us in very in early days when they're just starting to knock on the door of community organization and we have few suggestions and tips for them but as they get started the first is to begin by simply exploring the website and the public resources that an organization has available that could be as simple as following Twitter feed or following on Facebook but do you try to familiarize yourself with the organization and stakeholders before showing up if you will most organizations also have number of public events and again staying attuned to the website and social media you can find out when those events are on and 10 those events GM's annual general meetings are an example of an event that may interest you to get sense of where the organization is at where what their what they've done over the course of the last year in their plans for the future at those events and via interactions with an organization try to listen deeply and remain very curious and open and organizations mentioned time and time again that they really appreciate it when folks are both positive and patient in getting to know them one of the attributes of some of the most successful community university relationships that I've seen is when University stakeholders deeply honor the expertise and intellectual community outside of the university and honor it to the same extent and value it to the stamp same extent that they honor that on campus as well several of the successful community university relationships i've seen also are characterized by folks just genuinely being helpful looking for opportunities to roll up their sleeves and impact the organization and the the stakeholders in positive way that sometimes takes the form of saying yes to things that may be little bit outside of our typical duties one of the other characteristics that community organizations have mentioned to us is that they deeply appreciate it when status or busyness are not over emphasized in relationship that their time they feel is as valuable as anybody else's and they truly appreciate it when that's recognized in relationship you