Experience in existing family literacy programs has shown that the most effective means of addressing these two issues is through strong community partnerships. The benefits of inter-agency partnerships can include sharing limited budgets, sponsorship and donations, as well as meeting funding agency criteria. Partnerships also address recruitment challenges through facilitating referrals, making groups available, incorporating family literacy into existing programs, and creating greater awareness. Working with other agencies not only helps to address funding and recruitment issues, but also leads to sharing expertise, pooling resources, and other mutual benefits. Interestingly, since our partnerships project began, the Alberta government has undertaken a new early intervention initiative to improve services to children and their families. To access funding through this initiative, projects and services must demonstrate clear and significant partnerships with other community agencies.

While many literacy workers recognize the value of community partnerships, most are over-extended to the point where it is very difficult to find time to research methods and strategies for building partnerships. As Mawhinney (1993) states, "there is no single model for restructuring services that best enhances the capacity for flexible responses. Much must be learned about the design and implementation of successful collaborative initiatives" (emphasis added) (37). We need to understand "the complexities and deeper organizational issues" involved in forming partnerships and collaborations (33).

Having identified the need for information on how to sustain programs, and having also identified the benefits of partnerships and collaborations, FLAG submitted a proposal to the National Literacy Secretariat in early 1995. One component of the proposal was to research and develop a practical resource on community partnerships.

About the Partnerships Manual

How it is organized
The manual has been published in binder format to enable you to add it to other resources on family literacy, and to accommodate future research.

Our objective with this manual has been, first of all, to establish a context for community partnerships, in order to provide an understanding of the benefits, issues, and challenges which are attached to forming partnerships. This makes up the first part of the document. The second half contains practical, useful information on building community partnerships from the ground up.