What to say
Welcome to this HCE leader lesson. This lesson is on an important topic requested by HCE members: Forming Community Coalitions.
Why did HCE members care about this topic? Well, when communities have problems or needs, people usually accomplish more through working in a coalition. A coalition is an alliance of groups and organizations that agree to work together for a specific purpose. A coalition is often temporary and coalesces or stays together until the problem or issue is resolved.
What to say
The lesson has four objectives. Byparticipating in this lesson, you will learn to:
•Recognize the three basics elements of coalescing/partnering.
•Use tips and strategies for recruiting coalition members, including convening the first meeting.
•Recognize the ten dangerous traps that can threaten the sustainability of a coalition.
•Use the Sustainability Web.
What to say
There are three basic elements of community coalitions:
•respect for each group/organization
•accessibility
•and resources for the coalition
Let’s look at “Respect for Each Group” first. To achieve this element, we want to do the following:
•Encourage a joint approach to:
•defining problems
•identifying solutions, and
•defining success
•Respect the skills & capacities of partners.
•Recognize that you have as much to learn as you have to offer.
Sometimes a partnership, a coalition or similar group fails to following one or more of these strategies, and the experience is not good. Have any of you been in a group like that? What went wrong and how could these three tips help with that situation?
[Note to lesson leader: Be prepared with a bad example of your own in case no one in your group volunteers. Write it in the space below.]
What to say:
Successful coalitions are accessible.
This means that coalition members help each other negotiate the complex structure of each other’s organizations in order to accomplish tasks and projects. For example, to a non-member, OHCE's structure might seem a little confusing, so we would want to help our coalition partners understand HCE, its structure and all we have to offer, including our relationship with OklahomaStateUniversity and the Cooperative Extension Service.
Being accessible also means making what we offer more readily available . . . and this would be true for our coalition partners as well. If our countyHCE forms a coalition with other organizations to work on a local problem, we want partners who are willing to make their organizations accessible to the coalition, too.
What to say:
The third basic element is resources. Successful coalitions invest what’s needed to make the coalitions work effectively. When forming a coalition, we need to realize that coalitions are not free – they require time, effort and monetary resources.
When HCE organizations consider forming a coalition, it’s wise to think about the following questions when it comes to monetary resources:
•Will the coalition ask each partner organization for a special monetary allocation?
•What are the opportunities for corporate sponsorship and investment?
•What is the feasibility of a new fee structure for services delivered by the coalition?
•How can government agencies, universities and similar organizations serve as resources for in-kind contribution?
So there you have it . . . Respect for each partner, accessibility to each partner’s organization, and resources for the coalition. Using these three basic elements effectively is essential to forming a successful community coalition.
What to say:
Now it’s time to focus on recruiting partners for a coalition. I have seven tips to share.
- Be clear about the purpose of the coalition. Before anyone is even contacted about being on a coalition, decide on the problem or issue that needs to be addressed. Make sure the scope of the issue is clearly defined and focused.
- Prepare a brief description of the issue (1-2 pages). Make this something you can share with others, including potential coalition members. Describe the problem in the community. State the facts and avoid the myths.
- Prepare a list of groups and organizations that have the capacity to be part of the coalition. When thinking about capacity of each potential member, consider these ideas:
•What kinds of resources (such as people, space, and money) does the person or organization have to be an effective member of the coalition?
•How are the person’s or organization’s goals consistent with the purpose of the coalition?
•Why would the person or organization be motivated to be a good member of the coalition?
•How will the person’s or organization’s involvement in the coalition contribute to the legitimacy of the coalition?
•If the potential coalition member is an organization, what’s the composition of the organization? What kinds of persons are members of or employed by the organization? What are their skills and expertise?
What to say:
- Develop background on each potential partner:
•What kind of relationship does the person or organization have with the community? Is it positive? Confrontational? Is it with the community as a whole, or with a certain segment of the community?
•How is the best way to approach the person or organization about becoming part of a coalition? When is the best time to do it?
- Develop a time frame. How much time will be devoted to recruiting coalition members? When will the first coalition meeting be held? What needs to happen before that meeting, at the meeting, and in the first few weeks after that meeting?
- Invite potential members to participate in the coalition. Contact them in at least two ways, such as an introductory letter and a follow-up meeting or appointment by telephone or in person.
- Convene the first meeting of the coalition.
What to say:
If a countyHCE organization wants to form a coalition to work on a local problem, then HCE is largely responsible for recruiting the coalition members and convening the first meeting. The first meeting of the coalition sets the tone for the group, and it’s important that the agenda be well organized. The meeting will require several hours, so it’s wise to plan for a one-day retreat or break the meeting into several shorter meetings held over 2-3 weeks.
Several tasks can happen at the first meeting:
•It’s a great time to involve all the coalition members in deciding on and writing down the responsibilities and roles of each partner.
•Successful coalitions spend time at the beginning to identify ways to make the coalition mutually beneficial to each member. Some crucial actions include:
•State a common goal or vision for the coalition that is compatible with each organization or person in the coalition.
•Develop a policy that allows for each member to achieve his or her goals.
•Set a climate in the coalition that permits the potential for different outcomes. For example, if a coalition was formed to address children and violence in your community, HCE might want educational outcomes, while local law enforcement might want outcomes that improve the ability to do their job.
•Develop a policy for sharing resources, such as money, printing, space, expertise or similar resources.
•Finally, coalitions sometimes find it helpful to develop written guidelines on sharing clientele.
What to say:
While this leader lesson is about forming community coalitions, it’s helpful to look at sustainability . . . even at the early stages of forming coalitions. So, next we’re going to look at “10 Dangerous Traps” that can threaten the viability of a coalition, followed by the Sustainability Web.
What to say:
One of the first “Dangerous Traps” is loss of direction or focus. If this happens to your coalition, try the following:
•Review the description of the issue that you wrote when you started the coalition.
•Conduct a public meeting or seminar about the issue. Refocus the coalition around the issue.
•Select strong leaders for the coalition – good leadership helps to keep people on track.
What to say:
Loss of leadership or leadership struggles can impact a coalition. To get back to business, try the following:
•Change leadership.
•Develop role descriptions so people know what is expected of them in a leadership position.
•Conduct an orientation for new coalition members who join the coalition after it was started. Bring them up to speed about everybody’s roles and how they fit into the group.
•When there are struggles between two or more leaders, select competent leaders who can stay neutral in working on the issue.
What to say:
Sometimes the founders of a coalition have a hard time letting the coalition grow or change when it needs to do so. If this happens to your coalition, it’s probably time to do the following:
•Shift leadership. Take action to give other people a chance to lead.
•Assign new responsibilities. Give people an opportunity to do something different for a change.
•Develop leadership guidelines and policies. This helps people know what is expected of them.
•Rotate meeting chairs. Give more people the opportunity to lead, and add some variety to coalition meetings.
What to say:
Unequal involvement and recognition of partners can lead to bad feelings. Some suggestions include:
•Involve every partner in projects, planning and other activities so all feel included.
•Set limits for minimum involvement. Keep everyone involved so they feel a part of the responsibility as well as the accomplishment.
•Rotate leadership positions.
•Conduct orientation sessions.
•Provide team-building opportunities.
•Recognize partner contributions at coalition meetings, in the newspaper and other outlets.
What to say:
Poor planning efforts can discourage coalition members. To avoid this trap:
•Start small. Begin with small projects and enjoy those successes. Learn how to work together on small projects before tackling the big things.
•Provide training to people who are working with the coalition.
•Evaluate annually. Take stock of what the coalition has done and outline a plan for upcoming tasks and projects.
What to say:
Negative publicity can hurt a coalition. Use the following tips to stop it before it starts, or to handle it effectively after it’s happened:
•Get accurate information to partners. Do this as quickly as possible so they can be informed when people approach them.
•Appoint a public spokesperson. If the news media or other segments of the community have one official contact person in your coalition, they can get the story straight the first time.
•Correct inaccuracies when they occur, which can greatly increase the coalition’s reputation.
•Acknowledge & correct errors. Take the lead in getting the correct information to the public and stakeholders.
•Develop a crisis communications plan.
•Change leadership.
What to say:
When a planned project fails, the morale of the coalition can be affected. Suggestions for addressing this “dangerous trap” include:
•Hold a debriefing. Examine all parts of the plan and identify what failed.
•Study the cause of the failure. Determine what went wrong and what could be done differently the next time.
•Even in failure, there are almost always some things that went right. Recognize those positives and go forward from there. It’s been said that Thomas Edison was once asked how he felt after a thousand failed attempts at making a light bulb, and he replied that he didn’t consider them failures . . . he just learned a thousand ways not to make a light bulb.
•Assess partnership capacity to determine what the group actually has the capacity to accomplish. Be realistic.
•Solicit outside feedback. Sometimes you can be too close to the project, and “can’t see the forest for the trees”. Identify trusted people outside the coalition and ask for their input.
•Launch a small project that the coalition is capable of doing and get back on the success track.
What to say:
Burnout can undermine even successful people and coalitions. Remember to do the following:
•Slow down. Remember the old saying: “Life is a cinch if you take it by the inch.”
•Rotate leadership.
•Have fun. Make the coalition’s meetings and projects something that the members enjoy doing.
•Get feedback on expectations. I’ve talked about being sure that people are clear about what is expected of them when they take on a task, but what about after a task? Have you ever had a responsibility, and you wished someone had asked you afterwards if it went as expected? Well, it’s just as important to debrief after a project or responsibility to get feedback about how realistic the expectations were.
•Conduct stress reduction seminars.
•Expand the membership of the coalition. Invite more new people. Spread the workload to other persons or organizations that care about the problem you’re addressing.
What to say:
Structure in a coalition can be a great thing, but it can expand to the point of being a burden. Avoid this trap by doing the following:
•Streamline the structure of the coalition. Make the operation of the coalition as easy as possible.
•Take new approaches. Let go of the notion that “we’ve always done it this way”, and try new methods.
•Rotate leadership.
•Brainstorm alternative approaches to doing the work of the coalition.
•Simplify the coalition’s policies and procedures.
What to say:
Coalitions are usually comprised of people representing an organization that they work for or where they’re a member. And an organization has “turf” . . . the territory or subject that is its the focus – its reason for existing. It’s natural that a coalition will experience some turf battles, so remember the following suggestions:
•Talk about differences. Discuss turf out in the open. Remember what I said earlier about a coalition being mutually beneficial to each of its members? Helping a coalition member be beneficial to his or her “turf” is one way to keep that person involved.
•Mediate differences when things become a problem. It may be worthwhile to bring in a volunteer mediator to help the coalition deal with such a situation.
•Develop a grantsmanship plan. Look for ways that coalition members can work together to secure funding or other resources for the coalition.
•Seek “common ground”, which encourages coalition members to find the areas where they agree rather than focus on where they disagree.
What to say:
[Note to lesson leader: Hand out “The Sustainability Web”]
The “Sustainability Web” is a tool that you can use with an existing coalition to have coalition members assess the sustainability of the coalition in 14 different areas. Each area is represented by a line radiating from the center of the page. Each line is numbered 1 to 5.
This is not an exercise that we’re going to do during this leader lesson. Rather, you can use this tool with an existing coalition, or keep these 14 areas in mind as you form a coalition in the future. Complete instructions are on the handout for your use at another time.
Note to lesson leader:
•If you decided to use the “Headlines” evaluation technique mentioned in the Lesson Leader’s Guide, use the script below.
•If you decided to use a different evaluation technique, please disregard the script below and use your own.
What to say
Please get out a sheet of scrap paper and pencil or pen. [Provide paper and writing instruments, if needed.]
I’d like to know what you learned in today’s lesson, so I’m using an evaluation technique called “Headlines”. To get started, the first thing I’d like you to do is think about what you learned in the lesson and write up to three items on your paper. [Allow 1 – 2 minutes.]
Now I want you to close your eyes and picture yourself using what you learned today. Think about a time in the near future when you will form a community coalition on a local issue. Ask yourself what you learned in today’s lesson that will help you be successful in the future. Most importantly, picture yourself using what you’ve learned today. In other words, what would success look like? [Allow 1 minute.]
Now, open your eyes and write a short description of this vision. [Allow 1 – 2 minutes.]
Okay, now I want you to picture the local newspaper or the cover of a national magazine. Imagine that the news media has heard about your success and a reporter is writing a headline about it. What would that headline say? [Allow 2 minutes. Example:
“CountyHCE Forms Coalition on Underage Drinking”
As they write, walk around and observe what they’re writing. Did they learn what you hoped they would learn?]
[If the group is small and time allows, ask each person to share his/her headline. For larger groups, ask for a few volunteers.]
[Optional – have participants hand in their headlines so you can hear from the ones who didn’t volunteer.]