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Building and Maintaining Community Collaborations: |
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March 2001
FACILITATOR VERSION Overview: Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Time Requirements: Approximately 1-� hours. Times will vary greatly depending on the number of participants, the experience of the participants, the �personality� of the group, etc. Facilitators must use their own judgment and adjust accordingly. As with all of the Bridges to Practice professional development sessions, it is important to be familiar with the materials prior to the workshop in order to select specific activities if sufficient time is not available or if some activities take longer than anticipated. The room set-up must allow for small group as well as whole group activities. Materials:
(See the �Activity Sheets� (Items 5-10) for each of the six subgroups to determine which of the above materials will be needed by that group.)
The complete handout �Building and Maintaining Community Collaborations� follows; the facilitator notes are embedded within it and are in bold and italicized.
Have the following quotation (Item 1) displayed on overhead projector before starting the session:
Ask participants if they have ever seen the above quotation before. Any situations they can think of when a group of committed citizens brought about positive changes? What made those groups successful? Introduce the topic of community collaboration by going over the main points of the following �Introduction� and �The Journey� - up to but not including the listed �Six Steps.�
As literacy program practitioners who are becoming increasingly aware of the need to improve services for adults with learning disabilities, you may soon realize that changing policies and practices within your own programs is not enough; the challenges may be too great. Literacy programs �must develop links to the community that will ensure adequate resources, support, and follow up. By making these connections, (they) can ensure that adults with learning disabilities can continue to be successful, not only in literacy programs, but in life in general....� (Bridges to Practice 1999). But how does a literacy program begin the process of initiating or strengthening community collaboration?
In Evaluating Collaboratives - Reaching the Potential, Taylor-Powell, Rossing, and Geran (1998) describe the process of building collaborations as a journey:
If forming a collaborative is thought of as a journey, then, as with any journey, a road map is a necessary tool. In For the Common Good - A Guide for Developing Local Interagency Teams (1992), Susan Imel provides a road map, or framework, for organizations to use in developing or strengthening collaborative efforts. Imel, who acted as project director for Building Linkages for At-Risk Youth and Adults in Ohio, describes the organizations and agencies that work together to address a problem as �linkage teams.� The purpose of the guide is to assist in planning for, implementing, and sustaining linkage teams through a series of steps. Do not go over the Six Steps yet. First, using the �Steps on the Journey� handout (Item 3), ask participants to take five minutes to write a few sentences about their past experiences or future vision of working with other organizations in their communities to help improve services for adults with learning disabilities. What steps were taken or will need to be taken to bring about partnerships with these organizations? (If the facilitator feels it would be beneficial to have participants do the activity with a partner or small group, adjust the time accordingly.) When the five minutes is up, allow five to ten minutes to share their ideas with the whole group. Then put up the overhead transparency of the Six Steps (Item 4) and discuss how these steps compare to what was just shared. Do the Six Steps emphasize some points that were not included in the discussion? Conclude this opening activity by emphasizing that the steps are not necessarily sequential; the �journey� evolves over time and may include some side paths and backtracking, but by using the Six Steps as a road map, literacy programs will more likely stay on course. At this point, divide the whole group into six equal parts (by counting off, or having six different-colored stickers on their handouts, etc.). Each subgroup will be assigned an activity related to one of the Six Steps. If the whole group is too small to have six subgroups, divide into as many subgroups as the situation allows and cover as many of the Six Steps as seems feasible. The Activity Sheet (Items 5-10) for each subgroup will explain what they are to do. After the activity, a spokesperson from each subgroup will be asked to tell the whole group what their assignment was and what insights were gained through their activity. The sharing will flow more logically if the groups report out in the numerical order of the Six Steps; when each group reports, display the overhead transparency for that step (Items 11-16); you don�t need to read the questions listed on the transparency aloud, but they may help guide some discussion. Allow 20 minutes for the subgroup activity and 30 minutes for sharing the activity and the insights gained with the whole group. The goal of these activities is for participants to gain some understanding of each of the Six Steps through their subgroup activity and through the information presented by the other participants. Participants will have the complete �Building and Maintaining Community Collaborations� (Item 1) handout to keep for future reference. Although you, as facilitator, will not be formally presenting the remainder of the information in �Building and Maintaining Community Collaborations,� you should be familiar with its content in order to better facilitate the subgroup and whole group discussions. After all subgroups (or as many as time allows) have presented their insights to the whole group, thank them for their efforts and encourage a round of applause. Conclude the session by having participants write down on an index card one concrete action they will take in the week ahead that will help their program begin the journey of community collaboration that will ultimately help those they care so much about - their learners.
Imel emphasizes that it may not be feasible or desirable to follow the steps in a linear fashion. However, each step contains information that must be considered in the process of linkage development. The descriptions of the Six Steps which follow have been adapted from Imel�s guide, with emphasis placed on providing improved services for adults with learning disabilities. Insights from other resources have been added when deemed relevant. Keep in mind that this is a road map for a journey that evolves over time; the road map needs to be revisited throughout the journey to help ensure that you are on the right route.
Assessing the Local Need and Climate for Partnerships Sometimes linkages emerge spontaneously as a result of local conditions, but usually someone needs to take the lead in developing them. Practitioners in your program need to take the time to sit down and assess the current situation, keeping in mind how well you are currently serving adults with learning disabilities and how services could be improved through community linkages. Questions to consider in Step One: Assessing the Local Need and Climate for Partnerships
Getting Started If you decide that the local environment will support the development of partnerships, a number of activities will be needed to begin the formation of a team: formulating a tentative rationale, identifying existing linkages, and developing internal administrative support. Formulating a Tentative Rationale Formation of a tentative rationale requires that you answer the question, �Why is there a need for a local linkage team?� Your assessment of the local situation in Step One can form the basis for the answer to this question. You will need to be able to:
Identifying Existing Linkages Frequently, existing linkages can form the basis for a team. In fact, developing a team may simply be a matter of formalizing already existing linkages. Thinking about individuals in other organizations with whom you maintain regular contact is a good way to begin. Talking to others in your own organization about their contacts and knowledge of individuals and programs within the community (doctors and health professionals, psychology departments within colleges and universities, other organizations that work with individuals with disabilities, public and private school systems, etc.) may also be helpful. By involving staff, board members, volunteers, and learners in this process, programs may find out that they already have valuable relationships on which to build. When staff members of a community-based literacy program in Ohio identified a need to provide low cost or free diagnosis of learning disabilities for some of their adult learners, they worked with fellow members of the regional literacy coalition. Coalition members not only succeeded in identifying area psychologists willing to provide assessment/diagnosis of learning disabilities, but came up with guidelines for other programs in the coalition to follow when requesting diagnoses. This way, a streamlined process was set in motion, which saved time and resources for all participants; the psychologists involved were appreciative of receiving one phone call from a coalition member as opposed to multiple phone calls from various programs seeking their services. Developing Internal Administrative Support You may need to enlist internal administrative support both within and without your own program. Your tentative rationale should clearly state the benefits to all those involved in linkage teams. For example, what could a team accomplish that could not be done by programs on their own, and how would these achievements contribute to the goals and mission of all the programs involved? Questions to consider in Step Two: Getting Started
Forming the Team Your work in the first two steps will form a solid foundation for the step of forming the team. Activities in this step include identifying and selecting key players and issuing the invitations to participate. Identifying and Selecting the Key Players A vital part of this activity is identifying which organizations should be represented on the team. You started this process earlier, when you listed existing linkages. However, don�t exclude a group on the basis of no previous contact; be prepared to do some homework on such organizations to determine if they should be part of the team. Now you need to identify which of them will have a stake in addressing the problems described in the tentative rationale. Even those with a sincere desire to do what is best for their clients still need to have a sense of what the �payoff� will be for them. An important consideration is who should represent the organization. Experience has shown that team members should either be or have access to decision makers within their organizations. The enthusiasm and commitment of individuals can help energize the team, but if the team is to have the authority to modify how things are done or to negotiate policy changes, then the individual members need to have the power to do so. Issuing the Invitation There are a number of ways to issue an invitation to become a part of a newly forming linkage team. Ideally, whoever is taking the initiative to organize the team should issue the invitations. You will have to decide if an oral invitation (by telephone or in person) or a written letter is better. If you decide that beginning with an oral invitation is best, you should plan to follow it with a written letter that includes the rationale for forming the team as well as some estimate of the time and resources team membership will take. Stressing the benefits to the organizations of being involved with this team can help offset fears they may have about extending already stretched resources. It is also probably best to issue the invitation to join the team to the head of the organization. This will help ensure internal support for the team and its activities. Again, the foundations you have built in Steps 1 and 2 will support the process of forming the team. Questions to consider in Step Three: Forming the Team
Establishing a Collaborative Relationship
Although described as a separate step, establishing (and maintaining) a collaborative relationship is an ongoing process. It begins in the early stages of team development and continues throughout the life of the team. Collaboration implies a willingness on the part of organizations to change the way services are provided by:
Writers on collaboration (Kagan, Winer & Ray, as cited in Taylor-Powell et al., 1998) often make distinctions between the terms cooperation and collaboration. When groups work cooperatively, each group retains its own authority and keeps its own resources; the groups may have differing goals. When groups work collaboratively, they are committed to a common mission and come together to form a new structure. Your literacy program may find itself somewhere along a continuum between cooperation and collaboration. Initially, partners may not be ready for a collaborative relationship. Instead, you may work together cooperatively, to help each other meet your respective organizational goals without making any tangible changes in the way you deliver services or in your operating procedures. However, unless these cooperative relationships become increasingly collaborative in nature, no changes will occur in the service delivery system (Melaville and Blank, as cited in Imel, 1992). Authentic collaborative efforts evolve over time, frequently after a period in which those involved get to know one another and develop the level of trust needed to engage in joint planning. The relationships between parties are dynamic and they evolve as the readiness of participants and the demands of the situation change (Taylor-Powell et al., 1998).
A number of factors contribute to successful collaborative linkages:
By keeping the above factors in mind, you can help ensure that the work of the team becomes more collaborative than cooperative in nature. Questions to consider in Step Four: Establishing a Collaborative Relationship
Developing a Plan A plan that establishes joint goals and objectives as well as steps for achieving them is at the heart of a successful linkage team. Developing a plan involves creating an effective planning environment, formulating the plan, and developing administrative support for the plan. An effective planning environment is one in which team members can communicate honestly and freely and in which they are free from the distractions of their daily routines. The following elements will contribute to a positive planning environment.
Formulating an Action Plan
A plan for the team�s work should contain the following elements:
It is important that the team reach consensus on the plan�s content. Otherwise it may not receive full support from all members (and hence all organizations represented).
Developing Organization and Community Support for the Plan Once the plan is developed and finalized, it needs to be shared with the respective organizations represented on the team. Each team can decide how this activity should be accomplished but team members should be prepared to point out how the plan will help their organization achieve its mission more efficiently and effectively. Some teams have found it beneficial to share their plans with the wider community, which may provide access to additional resources and generate community support. Questions to consider in Step Five: Developing a Plan
Follow Up and Follow Through Achieving consensus on a written action plan is quite an accomplishment. Now, the team must focus on implementing the plan and maintaining the momentum that was generated during the planning stage. Sharing the plan with all the organizations represented on the team and the community is a start. There are other actions you can undertake to carry the plan forward. Implementing the Plan
The plan itself should provide timelines and assigned responsibilities for implementation steps. You can do the following to ensure the plan is accomplished:
Maintaining Momentum
Even though members may have a shared vision for their work, they may have trouble maintaining the initial energy that mobilized the team. Some strategies for sustaining the team�s momentum include the following:
If your team is successful in its efforts to provide improved services to adults with learning disabilities, it will be much easier to maintain its momentum. But sometimes, despite the best efforts, local conditions do not support collaboration. If this is the case in your community, you may need to wait for a more opportune climate, but you can use the time to develop networks that will foster future linkages. Questions to consider in Step Six: Follow Up and Follow Through
Clearly, developing and fostering linkage teams at the local level is not for the faint-hearted. These efforts involve systemic change for literacy programs; vision and persistence are essential ingredients. But, by taking the initiative and using the Six Steps described by Imel as a road map for your journey, your literacy program can be assured it is moving in the right direction.
A Professional Development Session for Bridges to Practice
As literacy program practitioners who are becoming increasingly aware of the need to improve services for adults with learning disabilities, you may soon realize that changing policies and practices within your own programs is not enough; the challenges may be too great. Literacy programs �must develop links to the community that will ensure adequate resources, support, and follow up. By making these connections, (they) can ensure that adults with learning disabilities can continue to be successful, not only in literacy programs, but in life in general....� (Bridges to Practice 1999). But how does a literacy program begin the process of initiating or strengthening community collaboration?
In Evaluating Collaboratives - Reaching the Potential, Taylor-Powell, Rossing, and Geran (1998) describe the process of building collaborations as a journey:
If forming a collaborative is thought of as a journey, then, as with any journey, a road map is a necessary tool. In For the Common Good - A Guide for Developing Local Interagency Teams (1992), Susan Imel provides a road map, or framework, for organizations to use in developing or strengthening collaborative efforts. Imel, who acted as project director for Building Linkages for At-Risk Youth and Adults in Ohio, describes the organizations and agencies that work together to address a problem as �linkage teams.� The purpose of the guide is to assist in planning for, implementing, and sustaining linkage teams through a series of steps:
Assessing the Local Need and Climate for Partnerships Sometimes linkages emerge spontaneously as a result of local conditions, but usually someone needs to take the lead in developing them. Practitioners in your program need to take the time to sit down and assess the current situation, keeping in mind how well you are currently serving adults with learning disabilities and how services could be improved through community linkages. Questions to consider in Step One: Assessing the Local Need and Climate for Partnerships
Getting Started If you decide that the local environment will support the development of partnerships, a number of activities will be needed to begin the formation of a team: formulating a tentative rationale, identifying existing linkages, and developing internal administrative support. Formulating a Tentative Rationale Formation of a tentative rationale requires that you answer the question, �Why is there a need for a local linkage team?� Your assessment of the local situation in Step One can form the basis for the answer to this question. You will need to be able to:
Identifying Existing Linkages Frequently, existing linkages can form the basis for a team. In fact, developing a team may simply be a matter of formalizing already existing linkages. Thinking about individuals in other organizations with whom you maintain regular contact is a good way to begin. Talking to others in your own organization about their contacts and knowledge of individuals and programs within the community (doctors and health professionals, psychology departments within colleges and universities, other organizations that work with individuals with disabilities, public and private school systems, etc.) may also be helpful. By involving staff, board members, volunteers, and learners in this process, programs may find out that they already have valuable relationships on which to build. When staff members of a community-based literacy program in Ohio identified a need to provide low cost or free diagnosis of learning disabilities for some of their adult learners, they worked with fellow members of the regional literacy coalition. Coalition members not only succeeded in identifying area psychologists willing to provide assessment/diagnosis of learning disabilities, but came up with guidelines for other programs in the coalition to follow when requesting diagnoses. This way, a streamlined process was set in motion, which saved time and resources for all participants; the psychologists involved were appreciative of receiving one phone call from a coalition member as opposed to multiple phone calls from various programs seeking their services. Developing Internal Administrative Support You may need to enlist internal administrative support both within and without your own program. Your tentative rationale should clearly state the benefits to all those involved in linkage teams. For example, what could a team accomplish that could not be done by programs on their own, and how would these achievements contribute to the goals and mission of all the programs involved? Questions to consider in Step Two: Getting Started
Forming the Team Your work in the first two steps will form a solid foundation for the step of forming the team. Activities in this step include identifying and selecting key players and issuing the invitations to participate. Identifying and Selecting the Key Players A vital part of this activity is identifying which organizations should be represented on the team. You started this process earlier, when you listed existing linkages. However, don�t exclude a group on the basis of no previous contact; be prepared to do some homework on such organizations to determine if they should be part of the team. Now you need to identify which of these organizations will have a stake in addressing the problems described in the tentative rationale. Even those with the most sincere desire to do what is best for their clients still need to have a sense of what the �payoff� will be for them. An important consideration is who should represent the organization. Experience has shown that team members should either be or have access to decision makers within their organizations. The enthusiasm and commitment of individuals can help energize the team, but if the team is to have the authority to modify how things are done or to negotiate policy changes, then the individual members need to have the power to do so. Issuing the Invitation There are a number of ways to issue an invitation to become a part of a newly forming linkage team. Ideally, whoever is taking the initiative to organize the team should issue the invitations. You will have to decide if an oral invitation (by telephone or in person) or a written letter is better. If you decide that beginning with an oral invitation is best, you should plan to follow it with a written letter that includes the rationale for forming the team as well as some estimate of the time and resources team membership will take. Stressing the benefits to the organizations of being involved with this team can help offset fears they may have about extending already stretched resources. It is also probably best to issue the invitation to join the team to the head of the organization. This will help ensure internal support for the team and its activities. Again, the foundations you have built in Steps 1 and 2 will support the process of forming the team. Questions to consider in Step Three: Forming the Team
Establishing a Collaborative Relationship Although described as a separate step, establishing (and maintaining) a collaborative relationship is an ongoing process. It begins in the early stages of team development and continues throughout the life of the team. Collaboration implies a willingness on the part of organizations to change the way services are provided by:
Authentic collaborative efforts evolve over time, frequently after a period in which those involved get to know one another and develop the level of trust needed to engage in joint planning. The relationships between parties are dynamic and they evolve as the readiness of participants and the demands of the situation change (Taylor-Powell et al., 1998). A number of factors contribute to successful collaborative linkages:
By keeping the above factors in mind, you can help ensure that the work of the team becomes more collaborative than cooperative in nature. Questions to consider in Step Four: Establishing a Collaborative Relationship
Developing a Plan A plan that establishes joint goals and objectives as well as steps for achieving them is at the heart of a successful linkage team. Developing a plan involves creating an effective planning environment, formulating the plan, and developing administrative support for the plan. An effective planning environment is one in which team members can communicate honestly and freely and in which they are free from the distractions of their daily routines. The following elements will contribute to a positive planning environment.
Formulating an Action Plan A plan for the team�s work should contain the following elements:
It is important that the team reach consensus on the plan�s content. Otherwise it may not receive full support from all members (and hence all organizations represented).
Developing Organization and Community Support for the Plan Once the plan is developed and finalized, it needs to be shared with the respective organizations represented on the team. Each team can decide how this activity should be accomplished but team members should be prepared to point out how the plan will help their organization achieve its mission more efficiently and effectively. Some teams have found it beneficial to share their plans with the wider community, which may provide access to additional resources and generate community support. Questions to consider in Step Five: Developing a Plan
Follow Up and Follow Through Achieving consensus on a written action plan is quite an accomplishment. Now, the team must focus on implementing the plan and maintaining the momentum that was generated during the planning stage. Sharing the plan with all the organizations represented on the team and the community is a start. There are other actions you can undertake to carry the plan forward. Implementing the Plan The plan itself should provide timelines and assigned responsibilities for implementation steps. You can do the following to ensure the plan is accomplished:
Maintaining Momentum Even though members may have a shared vision for their work, they may have trouble maintaining the initial energy that mobilized the team. Some strategies for sustaining the team�s momentum include the following:
If your team is successful in its efforts to provide improved services to adults with learning disabilities, it will be much easier to maintain its momentum. But sometimes, despite the best efforts, local conditions do not support collaboration. If this is the case in your community, you may need to wait for a more opportune climate, but you can use the time to develop networks that will foster future linkages. The Collaboration Checklist and Internal Collaborative Functioning Scales included in this module may be helpful in assessing and rethinking your collaborative efforts. Questions to consider in Step Six: Follow Up and Follow Through
Clearly, developing and fostering linkage teams at the local level is not for the faint-hearted. These efforts involve systemic change for literacy programs; vision and persistence are essential ingredients. But, by taking the initiative and using the Six Steps described by Imel as a road map for your journey, your literacy program can be assured it is moving in the right direction.
Bruner, C. Thinking Collaboratively: Ten Questions and Answers to Help Policy Makers Improve Children�s Services. Washington, D.C.: Education and Human Services Consortium, Institution for Educational Leadership, 1991. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 338 984). Guthrie, G.P., and Guthrie, L.F. �Streamlining Interagency Collaboration for Youth at Risk.� Educational Leadership 49, no. 1 (September 1991): 17-22. Imel, S. For the Common Good: A Guide for Developing Local Interagency Linkage Teams. Columbus: Center on Education and Training for Employment, The Ohio State University, 1992. Imel, S., and Sandoval, G.T. Ohio At-Risk Linkage Team Project: A Report on Three State Team Projects. Columbus: Center on Education and Training for Employment, The Ohio State University, September 1990. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 324 514). Kagan, S. (1991). United We Stand: Collaboration for Child Care and Early Education Services. New York: Teachers College Press. Melaville, A.I., with M. J. Blank. What It Takes: Structuring Interagency Partnerships to Connect Children and Families with Comprehensive Services. Washington, D.C.: Education and Human Services Consortium, Institute for Educational Leadership, 1991. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 330 748). National Institute for Literacy: National Adult Literacy and Learning Disabilities Center. (1999). Bridges to Practice: A Research-based Guide for Literacy Practitioners Serving Adults with Learning Disabilities. Washington, D.C. Taylor-Powell, E., Rossing, B., and Geran, J. Evaluating Collaboratives: Reaching the Potential. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension, 1998. Winer, M., and Ray, K. (1994). Collaboration Handbook: Creating, Sustaining, and Enjoying the Journey. St. Paul, MN: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation.
Take five minutes to write a few sentences on this sheet about your past experiences with or future vision of working with other organizations in your community to help improve services for adults with learning disabilities. Ideas may include anything from publicizing programs, to training tutors, to providing diagnostic services, etc. What have you tried in the past? What might you try in the future?
Assessing the Local Need and Climate Materials:
Directions: Appoint a scribe. As a group, brainstorm a list of the agencies, organizations, programs, and individuals with whom your literacy program(s) currently interacts; the scribe writes each of these on the post-it notes and places the post-it notes on the left side of a piece of flip chart paper that has been taped to a nearby wall. Repeat the above procedure, this time listing agencies, organizations, programs, and individuals with whom you are not currently interacting but who have the potential to be valuable partners in collaborative efforts to better meet the needs of adults with learning disabilities; place these post-it notes on the right side of the flip chart paper. Now write �Our Students� or �Our Learners� on another post-it note and place it in-between the �current� list and the �potential� list. As a group, select three agencies, organizations, programs, or individuals from each list - ones that you think have or could have the most positive impact on meeting your learners� needs. Use the felt tip marker to draw connecting lines between them and the �learner� post-it note. (Your choices could serve as a starting point for your literacy program�s collaboration-building efforts.) Select a �reporter� to describe your activity and its results to the whole group.
Getting Started Materials:
Take a moment to read through Step Two of the �Building and Maintaining Community Collaborations� handout. Take the three pieces of flip chart paper and tape them to a nearby wall. Appoint a scribe. At the top of one piece of the flip chart paper have the scribe write �WHAT.� At the top of the next one write �WHY.� At the top of the next one write �WHO.� Beginning with �WHAT� discuss as a group the problems and issues affecting your adult learners with learning disabilities that might be addressed through collaborative efforts in your community. Have the scribe record these problems/issues on the �WHAT� paper. Move on to the �WHY� paper and discuss/record the reasons why these problems/issues might be better addressed by community collaboration. Move on to the �WHO� paper and discuss/record a list of possible key players in your collaboration-building efforts (agencies, programs, organizations, individuals). If there is time, continue your discussion, adding �WHEN� to another piece of flip chart paper and drawing a preliminary timeline of your collaboration-building efforts. Select a �reporter� to describe your activity and its results to the whole group.
Forming the Team Materials:
Appoint a scribe. Brainstorm a list of the organizations, agencies, programs, and individuals who could be valuable partners on a collaborative (or �linkage�) team whose goal is to improve services for adults with learning disabilities. The scribe records these on the flip chart paper. Discuss ways you could convince these organizations, agencies, programs, and individuals to be part of the team (ie: what�s in it for them?). The scribe adds these ideas to the chart paper. Work together to write the names of the organizations, agencies, etc. on the pieces of construction paper, then form a paper chain that represents what you would like your collaborative team to look like (the �links� in your collaborative chain). Appoint someone to describe your activity and its results to the whole group.
Establishing a Collaborative Relationship Materials:
Directions: Discuss the differences between �cooperation� and �collaboration� and give some examples of each from your own experiences (work-related or non-work-related). Now, using any or all of the materials, work together to build two visual representations, or models: one of �cooperation� and one of �collaboration.� Be creative - have fun! Appoint someone to describe your activity and its results to the whole group.
Developing a Plan Materials:
Directions: Pretend that you are the members of a newly formed linkage team. You have been convinced by your local literacy program that it is in the best interests of the community to work together to improve services for adults with learning disabilities. Decide what organizations or agencies you wish to represent in this role play, then work on the following objectives for this first meeting:
You will need a scribe to record your ideas. Appoint someone to describe your activity and its results to the whole group or all members of your group can present the activity to the whole group as a role play of the linkage team�s first meeting.
Follow Up and Follow Through Materials:
Directions: Now, take a moment to read the �Step Six� section of your handout. As a group, compare your brainstormed list to the bulleted items listed under �Implementing the Plan� and �Maintaining Momentum� in the handout. Using a felt tip marker, circle any items on your flip chart list that are the same or similar to the items in the handout. Then, using a different colored marker, add in any items from the handout that you did not include but which you think are important to include. Appoint someone to describe your activity and its results to the whole group.
Assessing the Local Need and Climate
Getting Started
Forming the Team
Establishing a Collaborative Relationship
Developing a Plan
Follow Up and Follow Through
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