Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community:
Community Partnerships
Module 4
| Contents | Preface
| Introduction
| Module 1
| Module 2
| Module 3
| Module 4 | |
Practicing the Collaborative Process
Handout 6: Strategic Planning Scenarios
Instructions
Read the two scenarios below and decide if one captures your interest or write your own scenario in the space under Strategic Planning Scenario #3. In the small group activity you will become a member of a strategic planning team, responsible for carrying out the five strategic planning steps. Choose the scenario carefully; it should be one that is important to you and your work.
Strategic Planning Scenario #1: Working Toward a Vision of Positive Fathering
Your strategic planning team has a vision of fathers being the best fathers they can be. Studies show that adults who have had nurturing fathers typically enjoy good physical health, build strong marriages, develop close friendships, and experience life satisfaction. However, studies also show that a significant number of today's fathers grew up in homes without father role models. Furthermore, fathers today are expected to take a bigger part in caring for and nurturing their children. As fathers take on these changing parenting responsibilities, they are increasingly experiencing work and family conflicts.
You want to see father-friendly environments in your community for fathers who live with their children, who visit their children, or who are (or are willing to be) father substitutes. You want to see all fathers spend more time and have more fun with their children, know more about their children's development and age-appropriate behaviors, and be more involved in their children's education. You want fathers, especially those who are single parents, to have a variety of opportunities to talk about parenting experiences and to receive guidance and support from other fathers.
Your vision requires collaborative community partnerships. Your strategic planning team is meeting to develop a plan for getting your community to do a better job of supporting and educating fathers.
Strategic Planning Scenario #2: Working Toward a Vision of Partnership in Serving Families
Your strategic planning team has a vision of service providers from different agencies working as partners with families. Studies show that families who receive services from two or more agencies at once often get caught up in different agency requirements, goals, and plans that leave them confused. Instead of reinforcing each other's work, service providers from different agencies tend to work independently and follow their own agendas; they may not even be aware that other agencies are involved with the same family. As a result, important and sometimes critical information about children and families is never shared and families work on too many, or even conflicting, goals at the same time.
You want to see scarce agency resources put to better use for families in your Head Start community. You want the families to have unified and coordinated plans to help them achieve their goals. You want to be able to contribute to and support the work of other service providers involved with Head Start families on a family-to-family basis. You want more opportunities in your community for service providers from different agencies to meet and learn about each other, to participate in training programs together, and to become true partners in their work with families.
Your vision of how service providers can work together to support and serve Head Start families requires collaborative partnerships with a number of key community agencies. As a starting point, your strategic planning team is meeting to develop a plan for working more closely and effectively with at least one other agency in your community--one that is frequently involved with families that Head Start serves.
Strategic Planning Scenario #3: Working Toward a Vision of ...
Handouts
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