Community Partnerships
Create authentic civic partnerships between schools and community organizations, united in building the civic community.
Who are community partners?
Let’s build something together! Community partnerships bring together schools and organizations, who share our mission and values in creating and sustaining civic partnerships towards common goals.
Whether in the form of political activism, community development projects, or through a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, community partners at BE A CITIZEN are engaged citizens and students who are committed to building a better civic culture and want help doing it!
How can we build a better community?
What does partnership look like?
Being a partner organization with Be a Citizen can take many forms — that’s where we come in! We work with partners and schools to create and support opportunities for collaboration. Partnerships will look different, but may reflect one or more of these categories.
See more about our Guiding Principles of Community Partnerships below.
Donate Resources
Once aligned with a project design, teachers, students, and community partners will identify the tools and resources they'll need for their collaboration.
Audience
Serve as an audience member for student products, either virtually or in-person
Guest Speaker
Visit students to support project, discuss industry/career role and pathway, discuss skills needed to enter this career path, explain role's contribution to the community, explain related issue or topic.
Consultant
Communicate with students to provide expert feedback on their work. This partnership embodies ongoing collaboration.
Coaching
Frequently communicate with students to provide expert feedback on process, product, or project, available for students to contact via email. This partnership embodies ongoing collaboration.
Featured Partners
Frazier History Museum
Louisville, KY
The Frazier History Museum seeks to “[i]gnite the human spirit with thoughtfully crafted stories to spark curiosity about who we are and our connection to the future.” They envision the museum as a: “compelling destination about Kentucky’s culture, heritage, and its relationship to the world.”
As a Be a Citizen partner, they want to foster dialogue through community building. Frazier History Museum wants to be a space where students can add their voice to the museum, enriching their exhibits on Kentucky. The resources they are providing for the students of Jefferson County Public Schools is a designated space in the museum to display their work.
Jefferson County Public Schools
Louisville, KY
JCPS teachers and students of different grade and subject areas are lending their talents, energies, and knowledge to address the issues facing Louisville and Kentucky.
Guiding Principles of Community Partnerships.
- Partners are committed to: being open, honest, respectful and ethical; building trust; acknowledging each other’s histories; mutually learning and sharing credit.
- Partnerships balance power and share resources among partners.
- Partners build upon each other’s identified strengths and assets, but also works to address needs and increase capacity of all partners.
- Partners make clear and open communication an ongoing priority by striving to understand each other’s needs and self-interests.
- Principles and processes are established with the input and agreement of all partners, especially for decision-making and conflict resolution.
- There is feedback among partners with the goal of continuously improving collaboration and its outcomes.
- Partners share the benefits of the accomplishments from collaboration.
- Partnerships consider the nature of the environment and communities within which they exist as a principle of their design, evaluation, and sustainability.
- Partners values multiple kinds of knowledge and life experiences.
The Be a Citizen Guiding Principles are adapted from: CCPH Board of Directors. Position Statement on Authentic Partnerships. Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, 2013.