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Community Partners and ImpactIntroductionWell-developed community partnerships are necessary for creating change within our local communities, nation, and even world. The Bonner Program rests on a commitment to meaningful, long-term service commitments to the partners and communities with which we work. These relationships are intended to be intentional and reciprocal. Each campus program develops a long-term approach, working with key partners year after year. This dedication to our partners promotes more significant change, resource development, and capacity building in our communities—as well as allows for personal and professional growth for each volunteer.
Creating Partnerships: The Community Partnership ModelBonner Programs strive to have deep, reciprocal relationships with their community partners that provide a spectrum of opportunities for volunteers at all levels. An ideal relationship would have a small group of Bonners and other campus volunteers simultaneously serving a site with different levels of responsibility according to their progress in the Student Development Model. See this Community Partnership diagram below for more details.
In this model, individual volunteers work in different capacities (as tutors, mentors, servers, health clinic specialists) in the Placement Model, but they can also be mutually responsible for building capacity of the organization through helping recruit other volunteers, coordinate projects, and even do planning in the Collaborative, Problem-Solving Model.
How does this translate into real service work for Bonners? By the end of the first year (or semester), Bonners typically find a placement at the 'regular volunteer' level, meaning they carve out a role for several hours per week. Most of the time, students are working in schools, in clinics, with youth programs, at agencies that serve the hungry and homeless, in parks, and so on. At times, Bonners and other students might take roles as 'occasional volunteers,' which means they're involved in one-time or short-term service projects, such as a park clean-up, build, or other initiatives. Over time—perhaps by the second or third year—a Bonner finds an issue, organization, and role she or he is committed to, and begins to take leadership. The student might become a site leader, project coordinator, or branch out to create a new program area within the organization. Finally, a student may take on a specialist role, often embraced as a member of the staff. Here, the student might be carrying out research projects, program development, and even planning for the agency.
A Comprehensive Notion of ServiceThis approach also translates to a comprehensive notion of service, in which Bonner Scholars and Leaders can mentor, coach, teach, build, do research, and more. The service path is connected to students' growth (the student development model). For instance, a first year student explores serving in various agencies and schools and settles into working with third graders on math and science tutoring. In the second year, the student stays in them, but are given more responsibilities with planning and leading math and science curricula. By your third year, the teacher and principal asks the student to share your knowledge by also teaching other volunteers how to work well with students and share the curriculum across the school. The student starts to get involved in other dimensions, like connecting the school with the national NASA curricula, and s/he links this work with their elementary education major and research projects. In your final year, the student is not only helping to manage the school's volunteer program for math and science curricula, but s/he has helped write a grant for it to continue, and had created a family involvement strategy informed by the outcomes of a policy brief on the topic. S/he has connected this work to a final capstone and honors thesis. The diagram below describes some of the various types of service projects that can happen.  Building the Organization's Capacity and Campus-Wide ServiceLots of times, the organizations, schools, agencies, and groups with which Bonners and other students work are small, locally-run non-profits that really need the volunteers and other resources (like equipment, supplies, and funding). Students might find that their work is hindered by resource barriers, or even a sense of disorganization that results from crisis management. As service work evolves, the student can also help the organization to better meet its mission and deliver what it needs to for those it serves. Bonner Programs—with multi-year volunteers—can forge a connection between the semester-long placements and an overarching strategy to build the capacity of the organization. As students take on increasing responsibility—recruiting and coordinating other volunteers and projects, doing outreach and PR, carrying out community-based and policy research, writing new materials, raising money, and even doing strategic planning—students can contribute to the ability for the organization to carry out its mission effectively.
In order to best leverage Bonners' work with a site, campus programs often begin to integrate a site-based or issue-based team model. This means that there are more than one volunteer at the organization, even if some are not in the Bonner Program. The organization can count on getting Bonners and other regular volunteers each year, and this provides valuable staffing and human resources for its work. Learn more about the Site and Issue Team Model here.
As this happens, the campus also builds its capacity to better partner with and serve the organization. For example, a partner site hosts four Bonners throughout the year, hosts a campus-wide service event with 60 volunteers annually, has 12 other students serve at the agency as part of a service-learning course, and has a faculty member involved on its board and doing research that it needs. On campus, all of this work is coordinated by the center(s) for community service, service-learning, civic engagement or whatever they may be called. Over time, the campus and community solidify a long-term, multi-faceted relationship—with connections to many resources that the campus can bring.
Quick Start Guide for Community Partnerships
1) Make sure you understand the key concepts. You might review the following:
2) Make a list of partners that you believe are the strongest sites for Bonner Scholars/Leaders and other long-term student volunteers. Then, review BWBRS to read the placement descriptions and briefly catalog the types of placements these partners are offering. Use this worksheet: Try to make a plan for how you want to focus your work with these strongest partners in the coming year.
3) Determine a number of partners with whom you want to meet to discuss and plan site- and/or issue-based teams. Here, continue to complete the worksheet (part 2). Also, you can utilize the handouts in the Implementation Guide to create a set of materials for the partners and walk through them. Here are a few helpful documents for this purpose:
A seven-page word document covering the 5 E’s, Common Commitments, skills, campus roadmap (to be customized), student profiles, and things Community Partners can do to support student development and community impact.
4) Finally, make sure that you update BWBRS to reflect this planning and strengthening of placements. You may want students and/or partner staff to take a look at this worksheet to help you improve CLAs. Bonner Admin Worksheet: CLAs - Making Them Great
Implementation Guides for Community PartnershipsImplementation Guides provide easy-to-use and understand resources for campus programs. In this case, staff may wan to utilize the content of the guides and handouts below to educate community partners about the program model and work with them to fully leverage the engagement of student volunteers. Create a binder, orientation, training sessions, and meetings from these materials. This information is organized into several headings, each of which contains helpful text, sample documents, and templates you can use:
Power-Points Presentations, Handouts, and Worksheets
Below are the powerpoints, handouts, and worksheets from the New Bonner Directors & Coordinators Meeting, which are excellent resources for getting familiar with the full model, frameworks, management strategies, and best practices.
Community Partnerships — Part I : Community Partnerships, Placements, CLAs, and BWBRS
Community Partnerships — Part 2 : Site-Based Teams, Issues, CBR, & PolicyOptions
Additional Training Guides & Resources
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