The Partnership Playbook: Driving successful partnerships through goal setting
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EmailSetting clear goals in partnerships with youth-serving organizations is the key to making a real and lasting difference for young people and their communities.
A community partnership is a collaborative relationship between people or organizations who come together to achieve a common goal. According to the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, these partnerships involve shared responsibility with schools, community groups and organizations teaming up to support youth development and education. In youth development programs like 4-H, different groups—such as businesses, local community organizations and volunteers—play an important role in offering programs that help young people grow through teamwork and collaboration.
Setting goals is an important step in building strong partnerships with other organizations. Clear and defined goals help everyone stay on the same page and work together toward a shared purpose. They make it easier to use identified resources wisely and ensure efforts are focused on supporting and empowering young people within the community. Goals also help keep partners accountable, making it easier to handle challenges and take advantage of new opportunities as they arise. By setting goals, organizations can build stronger partnerships that create continuing, positive changes for youth and their communities.
The following steps can be taken to create functional goals with community partners:
- Identify shared priorities
- Partnerships should include groups/organizations that have similar missions.
- Identify overlap between organizational missions that could guide the partnership.
- Set SMART goals
- Specific: Goals should be clear, distinct and answer the question of what you want to achieve.
- Measurable: Ensure you have a way of measuring progress towards or completion of goals.
- Attainable: Make sure your goals are realistic and achievable.
- Relevant: Goals should be mission-aligned and important to the partnering organizations.
- Time-bound: Set a clear and identified time frame for goals.
- Brainstorm and create goals together
- Schedule a collaborative brainstorming session or discussion to generate potential goals based on your shared priorities.
- Prioritize when multiple goals are desired
- Review the list of goals created and prioritize them based on their importance.
- When priorities do not align, utilize active listening to reach a consensus.
- Define success criteria
- Clearly define success criteria that is measurable.
- Criteria could include quantitative data, qualitative data or observable changes in behavior or conditions.
- Create actionable steps
- Break down large goals into smaller, more manageable tasks to increase progress tracking and ensure accountability.
- Reflect and revise
- Schedule check-ins with your partner to review progress toward goals.
- Be open to feedback that may lead to adjustments based on needed or new information.
- Celebrate achievements
- Celebrate the little victories along the way.
- Recognize the contributions of your partner to show your appreciation.
- Evaluate impact
- Conduct an evaluation of the project and the process.
- Utilize stakeholder feedback.
Goal setting is one of the many key components of strong partnerships that make a difference. When youth-serving organizations like 4-H set clear goals with community partners, they strengthen the foundation for effective teamwork and collaboration. Regularly reviewing and adjusting these goals helps everyone stay on track, overcome challenges and ensure their efforts lead to real improvements for the young people they serve. By setting goals, partnerships can create new opportunities, strengthen their impact and help create positive change in communities.
To learn more about community partnerships, check out the rest of the Partnership Playbook series:
- The Partnership Playbook: How partnerships make youth programs better!
- The Partnership Playbook: Types of partnerships
- The Partnership Playbook: Initiating a partnership
- The Partnership Playbook: Building a strong foundation with partners
Michigan State University Extension relies heavily on community partnerships to increase the reach of the work we do. For more information about partnering with MSU Extension in your community, contact your local 4-H program coordinator.
