BBBS uses the following key strategies to build sustainable partnerships with schools:
Begin on Common Ground
Both schools and mentoring providers have the same ultimate goal — helping youth — which immediately provides a common ground and shared purpose for mentors and school staff. To make the most of this shared purpose:
- Find a "champion" for your program — someone respected in the schools that will help promote the program.
- Discuss what each partner is looking for in the partnership and what each can contribute.
- Demonstrate how your program can help achieve existing educational objectives.
- Use research and evaluation findings to show the effects mentoring can have on student attendance, attitudes, behavior, and grades.
- Create a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to detail expectations of the partnership.
Become a Commodity, Not a Burden
School staff with heavy workloads and limited time may greet new programs (and the additional tasks associated with them) less than enthusiastically. Take steps to counteract any resistance you encounter, including:
- Invite school staff to help you identify the most appropriate youth for your services.
- Consider building stipends for school staff into your budget to compensate for extra time spent making referrals or collecting data for your program.
- Be attentive to the school calendar and schedule services so that they don't conflict with key school events.
- Become part of the school Local Education Agency Plans (LEAPs). Volunteer to draft parts of the LEAP, in particular those that are a good match with your services. You will be helping schools with a difficult task while building program sustainability at the same time.
Share Data
Both schools and mentoring programs collect data. Build agreements about data collection and sharing into your MOU. The following strategies can help you ease data-collection expectations for schools and provide additional data that may be helpful to them in return:
- Report back data findings to schools in meaningful ways, so that they can use it as well.
- Share copies of your own evaluation reports and/or formally present findings at a staff meeting.
- Consider timing for data collection and be as clear as possible up front about your data needs.
- Use the summer as a time to connect with the school administration to find out what worked and what can be improved in terms of data collection.