Introduction Step 1: Getting Your Coalition Ready Step 2: Identifying Partners Step 3: Approaching Potential Partners Step 4: Working with Partners Step 5: Assessing and Strengthening Your Partnership Case Studies Additional Resources Acknowledgements

Introduction

This toolkit has been designed to support immunization coalition members and leaders, such as yourself, in expanding their reach and resources through partnerships with non-immunization groups.

Why partner with non-immunization groups?

Immunization coalitions can benefit from collaborative relationships with organizations or groups that have a shared vision and similar goals. Through these partnerships you may:

• Secure additional resources for your coalition or one of its projects
• Expand your reach
• Improve the coordination and quality of services
• Create new ideas and services through collaboration
• Make services more responsive and appealing to users
• Build long-term sustainability of services

Whom to partner with?

There are many options for the types of groups that you can partner and collaborate with. These groups might include:

• Disease-specific organizations
• Non-immunization health coalitions
• Civic and service organizations
• Colleges and universities
• Health insurance companies
• WIC clinics
• Faith-based organizations
• Local county school systems

Be creative, think outside the box!

What are some ways to partner?

There are various ways you can work with non-immunization groups. For example:

• Attend each other's meetings to share ideas, offer technical expertise, and leverage resources
• Serve on each other's work groups/task forces
• Distribute educational materials for each other
• Advertise events on each other's Web sites
• Write articles on health issues for each other's Web sites/newsletters
• Train each others' members about respective health issues
• Give each other access to constituents
• Review materials and provide feedback for specific constituencies (to make sure they are appropriate)
• Develop materials together
• Cost share resources such as staff, training, vehicles, supplies
• Provide services at each other's events
• Plan events or administer programs together

How this toolkit can help

Developing and managing partnerships requires time and resources. Therefore, it is important to be prepared before you begin the process—this toolkit can help you with that preparation.

Included in this toolkit are practical tools and tips for the following five steps of this process:

1. Getting your coalition ready
2. Identifying partners
3. Approaching potential partners
4. Working with partners
5. Assessing and strengthening your partnership

Additionally, we have included four brief case studies of successful partnerships that IZTA members have engaged in and a resource section with an annotated list of Web sites, tools, and other materials.

We hope you find this toolkit useful - please share with us your feedback or any questions.

This Web site is supported by Cooperative Agreement Number U66/CCU324035 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its content is solely the responsibility of AED and does not necessarily represent the official views of CDC.