Working with Community Partners Introduction

Working with Community Partners is divided into five sections.

  1. Overview to Working with Community Partners – this section
  2. Participatory Practice
  3. Museum Context and Culture
  4. Community Partners
  5. Putting it into Practice

Working with Community Partners aims to help you think about your practice and community partnership development considerations. It is written for anyone in the museum sector who wants to know more about how effective community partnerships can be.

At the beginning of each section we will share the section’s learning objectives and ask you to reflect on what you want to know, what you currently know and how it relates to your practice. This will help you develop your own learning objectives, which in turn will help you focus your learning.

Your learning is further supported by different optional exercises grouped under the four headings:

Reflecting – exercises associated with thinking about your own professional practice, organisational practice and sector practice, and assessing your knowledge and experience to consolidate your learning.

Doing – exercises associated with action, making notes on documents, seeking further information, watching films or visiting museums.

Connecting – exercises associated with making connections with others – specialist groups, colleagues or peers within your organisation or the sector; others outside and also with other learners.

Reading – exercises associated with reading case studies, reports, standards, books, articles and papers.

We hope by providing a mix of information, exercises, resources and signposting you will be able to develop your confidence and competence around partnership development and other links with local communities and voluntary organisations.

Monitoring your progress

On the right-hand side, you will see how far (percentage) through the course you are. You will also see the next lesson coming up. Choose the top of the right-hand bar to expand the column and view all the lessons in the course. If you take a break to return you will need to log in and go to your dashboard to continue with any course you have enrolled on.

Happy Learning!

Watch – an introduction to Working with Community Partners

Course and Section Learning Objectives

By the end of this course you will:

  • Know your personal and professional motivations for linking with the local community and have identified potential community partners.
  • Be able to advocate for the benefits of community partnership.
  • Be clear about the next steps to take to develop a community partnership,

By the end of this introduction section you will:

  • Understand Partnerships with Purpose and how it can inform community partnerships.
  • Understand the role ethical practice plays in community partnerships.
  • Understand how Museums Changes Lives can affect change at a community level.

A downloadable copy of the course learning objectives for Working with Community Partners including those for all of the individual sections is available.

Download – Working with Community Partners Learning Objectives

Reflecting Exercise – Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, and this section, we hope that you will have developed your competence and confidence. Reflecting on what you specifically want to get out of the course can help you focus your attention and engage more readily with the content. Reflect on the following questions:

  • What do you want to learn?
  • What do you already know and understand?
  • How can this course help you build on this foundation?

This should take about 15 minutes.

Please record your own learning objectives in your reflection notes, we will ask you to reflect on them at the end of the course.

We recommend you have a note pad or a digital notes to capture your thinking, reflections and learning as you progress through the course.