1. TAKING PARTNERSHIPS TO
THE NEXT LEVEL
From Best Practice
to Common Practice

2. IDEAS WE’LL ADDRESS
Site and Issue-Based Teams
(also Place-Based)
Creative Higher Level
Placements
Community Capacity Building
Organizing Around Issues &
Bigger Goals
Integrating Web-Based Tools
Reflecting This in BWBRS

3. OPENING QUESTIONS
What is the current level of integration of site/issue-
based teams? How many partners? How much of
your Bonner Program?
Do you have student leaders playing roles as site/
issue/team leaders or in helping arrange & manage
service partnerships?
How much auditing have you done of students’
higher-level placements (as reflected by CLAs and in
BWBRS)

4. ORGANIZING SITE/ISSUE TEAMS:
POTENTIAL & CHALLENGES
Many non-profit partners
Supports partners to have
are small; capacity needs
volunteers (Bonners) that can
and lower-level placements
take on higher-level
crowd out room to develop
roles and address
higher-level placements
capacity
Culturally, some don’t want
Provides more structure for
to interfere with students’
students to engage in team-
‘choice’ of service
based goal-setting,
Being ready: some campuses
education, & research
take leap to assign leaders
Aligns with
(VISTAs or PCs), and it fails
developmental model

5. RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES
Organize clusters of students around
issues/sites within a place (multiples sites for
one issue team when dealing with small
partners)
Transform meeting structure (alternating
with class meetings) & retreats, engaging
partners & empowering students through
leadership roles (including research)

6. RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES
Create innovative intern and higher-level
capacity building roles (e.g., Senior
Intern, Community Outreach Intern, volunteer
training program, videos, web development,
resource development)
Athletic program/team metaphor
combined with full range of issues (and
academic connections) counters ‘culture’ issue

7. WHAT’S YOUR APPROACH?
Where do you see these ideas taking shape in
your program?
What are some of the challenges, and how
have you (or can you) adapt your program or
approach to meet them?
How might you utilize enrichment grants to
support this work?

8. MORE QUESTIONS:
Have you begun organizing around issues,
either with partners or on campus, or both?
What are you doing?
What other capacity building initiatives have
you developed?
Have you begun to utilize web-based tools
(Serve 2.0) in your program in ways that
benefit partners?

9. ORGANIZING:
POTENTIAL & CHALLENGES
Strategically organizing
Campus structures can
campus-community present challenges to
activities around issues working across department/
can allow new coordination of division
civic work (service, courses,
Again, partners are
assessment)
sometimes not ready to
Campus coordination can think in this way, due to
align with new ways to build resource and capacity
needs
capacity of community, and
increase quality of civic
engagement

10. RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES
Organize series of workshops and
institutes with one or several partners,
tapping into other resources (faculty,
institutional) on campus
Build and carry out a more strategically-
focused working group and process,
which would focus on taking civic engagement
to the next levels

11. RESPONSES TO CHALLENGES
Utilize retreats and meetings with this
working group to organize around issues,
projects (QEP), and initiatives
Tap into assessment and other rubrics
to inform the plan and persuade others with
data-rich information
Utilize enrichment funds for these
purposes (mini-grants, retreats, structures)

12. EXAMPLES & HANDOUTS
Davidson College: workshop series, partner
consortia, summer retreats, developing non-
profit institute
WV Wesleyan: leadership team for civic
engagement, VISTA positions, retreat series,
developed institution-wide outcomes for civic
engagement
Siena College: institution-wide assessment process,
then linked with other engagement strategies
TCNJ: team is here to share work

13. INTEGRATING
WEB-BASED TOOLS
Outreach, recruitment,
& matching
Program management
(and design)
Connecting program to other
resources on campus
(and across network)
Storing & sharing
your knowledge

14. WE’LL EMPHASIZE
3 TOOLS HERE
WIKI: Partner Profile for Bonner Program
or Campus-Wide Wiki
Ning (Bonner Network Forum):
a platform for students, staff, faculty, and
partners (eventually) to be in touch around
issues
PolicyOptions tool for research (cover in
tomorrow’s session)

15. USING A WIKI:
PARTNERS CAN BENEFIT
Wiki: interactive web-page
(many can edit)
Agency Information
Mission/Vision, Program
Descriptions
Map/Location (Place-Based
Analysis, GIS)
Volunteer Positions
Videos (Profiles, Training,
More)

16. Simple
structure and
links.
Each team has a
page to update.

17. A simple profile
introduces your
site.
Students create & update
plans, manage work.

18. A Campus-Wide
Wiki can help with
outreach, listing
volunteer
opportunities at
your site.

19. The Wiki can introduce
students to important
information about the
neighborhood. Here
students did
community asset
mapping to create
videos and then
mapped partners.

20. The wiki can be a
tool for students at
site to do &
document plans
(setting goals,
charting progress).
Site/Issue
structure also
supports policy
research (co-
curricular).

21. HOW DO WE CONNECT &
LEVERAGE NETWORK?
Bonner Programs at
80+ colleges &
universities
Each has 10-100
students & 10-200
community partners
We work across
common issues to
make a difference

22. CAMPUS ISSUE PROFILES:
MAP THE WORK
Campus Profile
Types of Service
Academic Work
Education & Training
Campus &
Organizational
Capacity Building
Research, Policy
Analysis &
Deliberative
Democracy

23. WORKING GROUP PROFILES:
MAP THE NETWORK
National Profiles
Begin to allow campuses
to connect with each
other
Map the network-wide
approach
Precursor to narrowing
focus & doing public
policy research
Allows foundation to use
Ning to connect groups

24. FORUM GROUPS:
SHARE IDEAS WITH US
Help Us Strategize:
How to support these
connections across
campus
How these tools can link
with your own campus’s
needs (e.g., campus Ning
sites like Middlesex)
Dreaming about the
potential and how to
make it work

25. BONNER NETWORK FORUM
(NING)
How it can help:
Get staff, students,
partners, and faculty to
join groups
Start & participate in
discussions
Post articles &
resources
Connect around specific
interests