Term Paper on "Community Partnership"

Term Paper 7 pages (2077 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Community Development

The recent boost of development in the educational structure of various communities is partially dependent on the growth of partnerships between the schools and the neighboring communities. These partnerships enables the schools, communities, educational boards and supporting agencies to understand circumstances and abilities of children in a more comprehensive way and hence help them to learn more effectively and be more involved which in turn results in a flourishing and strong community. The involved contributors in these partnerships are mainly brought together to structure the growth in understanding between the children, families and the communities at large. These contributors comprise of the faculty and staff, the principles and administrators, the education boards, parents and other familial influences in child's life, the head of the community is also an important factor in the expansion and effect of these partnerships, society-centered corporations, youth expansion agencies, welfare groups to name a few. The formation of these partnerships is not as easy as it might seem; in fact, it is a very intricate and demanding procedure which can only be effectively executed if and when all the contributors involved in the partnership get actively occupied in settling on a common idea and universal aims and are able to set up a sound, strong and adaptive administrative construction as well as watchful and efficient execution of the tasks. These partnerships are not an internal network but need a considerable amount of input and support from external sources to evaluate and continue to better understand the individual traditions and outlooks of the schools, private, as well as, corporate organizations involved in the partnerships and hence execute functions accordingly (Blank and Langford, 2000).

The most important factor of the community partnerships is the contribution of families and other influences in any child's life as they play a major part in defining the child's characteristics, knowledge and incidents in life. It will be twice the hard work for any school that does not engage this particular factor in their overall strategically driven educational plans. The main reason behind involving the families is to form a sort of even ground of constructive prospects and triumphs for the students as well as to avoid doubt, confusions or contempt between the families and the schools, which is more than often the case in schools for minorities, and in which case the students are left to suffer the negative effects. This particular respect and regard can be a direct result of understanding the different strengths and prospects that the different factors of the community bring forward for the child. To understand and acknowledge the morals, dexterities, and ideas of these differing and variant factors in the community, especially the families, which influence the child will enable the schools to concentrate on the positive aspects and hence form useful and effective partnership (http://www.turningpts.org/pdf/Family.pdf).

The fact though still remains that the communicative gap between the families and the school administrations is still considerably wide. The trials and confrontations of theories and practical applications are not getting any easier. The only way that this gap can be narrowed is to focus only on the factors that are for students' best interest and help the growth process. We can use the 5 lenses analysis structure to discuss the main challenges of the numerous present in the educational setup.

A lenses analysis

1. Formality (external)

The important components of this first part is that the stability of external relationships is always subject to market and that the legal, social, and economic forces continually threaten competition over the passage of time and that this form of competition usually results in a desire to increase self-preservation amongst all the contributors within a community partnership.

One recommendation that has already been made before is the joint efforts and understanding between the different contributors in the partnership to agree on a mutual idea and universal aims that are most advantageous for students (Bruner, 1991). Of course this can only be achieved if all the contributors share and acknowledge a sense of confidence, potentials, realization of responsibilities, profits (gained and given) and respect, so achieving that should be the first objective (Himmelman, 1995).

Any successful partnership is based upon the relationship formed between the various contributors involved in the overall process. The partnerships should make the responsibilities and potentials of each component more clear with the passage of time, and in affect build a strong sense of trust amid the contributors. The community partnerships formed should be able to avoid repetition and in turn use the present capital and financial sources in the most profitable way which would encourage more and more contributors to join and participate efficiently. The partnerships should be a constant source of inspired development, familiarity, perception and facts of the current structures, programs and theories already in use to make it more easily adaptable for others. All the partnerships formed between the community and the families should make each more aware of the skills, responsibilities and restrictions of the other so as to encourage healthy and productive competition. It would be more beneficial to build partnerships along already familiar grounds to gain respect and trust more quickly and easily and hence speed up the overall purpose and process of the partnership. The overall effect of competition will result in the growth of the strength in the internal spheres of the partnership through the increase in effective communication and social meetings that help in spreading awareness (Himmelman, 1995).

2. Power (usually internal/partial expressed)

Another element taken into consideration in the 5 lenses analysis is power and its important factors are that the imbalances of power result in dysfunctional relationships making power struggles insidious and toxic. Also, the added stress of power-related issues over-burdens relationships and detracts from the initial focus and aim of the partnership.

In order to avoid this particular route where power struggle might come into play, the partnerships should focus making decisions on the basis of a general consent amongst all the contributors instead of the "majority-votes" phenomenon. It is however, impossible to make all the contributors agree unanimously on certain aspects, therefore, the recommendation in that case is to make the decisions by taking out an average of what is more desirable by the contributors by voting on a structure where they either "strongly agree," "slightly agree," "slightly disagree" or "strongly disagree" to a theory, hence the management of the differences of the opinions could be handled without clashes of ideas or personalities, and the end result and process chosen could be more then satisfactory for the contributors (Dotterweich, 2006).

Any successful partnership needs to have an administrative organization that handles the responsibilities of the paper work that is required at the end of the day by organizations like NYSDOH and Center of Excellence Partnerships. However, the partnership would grow stale, restricted and contradictory if this leading organization does not allow the other contributors to be partners in the social decisions and the decisions involved in the structuring and completion of ventures and practical theories (Dotterweich, 2006).

3. Risk (in relationship)

Another factor that is given high significance in the 5 lenses analysis is the risk factor involved in these partnerships. The risk in these partnerships is that the increased membership eventually increases the need for risk-assessment: more can go wrong. When dealing with a stressful and unanticipated situation the partnership will be exposed with all its shortcomings resulting in the overall informational, personal, and technical loss and eventually this will result in the increase of mutual liability - even credibility within the associations in a partnership.

The only way that the abovementioned risk factors can be avoided is through strong, aware and efficient form of leadership within a partnership. This leadership can include trusted leading organizations, skilled directors and community development boards. A strong and efficient leading organization within a partnership can increase the overall membership through the increase in human service and welfare agencies. New members can be encouraged to join the partnership on the basis of financial, social and/or creative benefits. The downside, however, could still remain in the lack of support from non-service agencies like religion-based agencies and privately owned enterprises and corporations as dynamic associates or partners in the decision-making process (Dotterweich, 2006).

4. Structure (internal)

One of the most important factors of the 5 lenses analysis is the structure of the partnership. The structure formed has to strike avoid draining the resources and capital by obtaining a balance between the control-systems and autonomy given. Another challenge in the formation of a suitable structure is the conflicting organizational cultures which might result in a dysfunctional alignment making trust, confidence and acknowledgment of responsibilities the decisive factors.

As mentioned in the very first factor: Formality, the success of the partnership will be dependent upon the formation of strong and trusting association amongst the contributors within a partnership. Also the benefit will lie with partnerships that will built upon already familiar ground as it will help the acceleration of the… READ MORE

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