2.4 Build & Sustain Community & Partner Engagement

If you’re following along with this guide, then you’ve already started some of the important work that goes into community and partner engagement (see Section 2.2). However, this work can be particularly important as you begin to kick-off the actual work of creating your community archive.

For one thing, announcing the new project can generate a lot of excitement, and you can use that excitement to build a feeling of momentum amongst existing partners and to bring in new partners.

For example, while we started our project with a handful of partners, we also took steps at the beginning of the project to reach out to new stakeholders. Here are some of the concrete steps that we took to build on our community partnerships as we launched our project:

2.4.1 Press releases

One of the first steps that we took, upon learning that we received our grant, was to put together a press release strategy. Our goal was to increase the visibility of the project across Tacoma, with the hopes that new potential partners might step forward.

The TPL Public Information Officer (PIO) prepared and released a press release (2021), which resulted in

  • a story in the Suburban Times (2021)

  • an interview for the Tacoma News Tribune (Needles, 2021)

  • a radio spot on KNKX Public Radio (Aina, 2022)

  • a blog post from University of Washington TASCHA (2021)

  • Grit City Magazine (on Instagram and Facebook) provided coverage of the project through their social media channels

Other media outlets receiving the press release indicated they would be interested in covering future phases of the project, particularly specific events or new collections available to the public. These news stories were important in attracting local attention and new partners to the project.

Several individuals and organizations reached out to the library requesting more information about how they could engage with the project after seeing news coverage and/or social media posts.

We recommend that other projects be prepared for new potential partners to contact them once the project is announced and/or communication efforts start. The Project Team should be prepared to describe the potential roles that partners could play; next steps to be involved; and have a way to understand the capacity, current collections, and interests of these potential partners. We developed those resources later in section 2.5 Build Team Capacity, but recommend that other projects develop them ahead of their initial press release. Since this original set of communications activities, there has been additional press coverage of the project.

Other event specific press releases include

2.4.2 Partner kickoff meeting

One of the first official activities of the project was to hold a series of kick-off meetings for existing and potential partners. This included organizations that wrote letters of support for the grant proposal, organizations that reached out to the team directly following announcement of the grant, and additional organizations that Trammell reached out to directly. These meetings were held virtually. At the meetings we introduced the core team; gave a brief overview of the project, including goals and timeline of activities; described how partners could get involved; and described next steps.

The primary next step for partners was to fill out two surveys.

  1. A Community Partner Information Form was used to solicit information about partner organizations, including how the organization might wish to support the project.

  2. A Collections Form was targeted toward partners who maintained collections (for example, local colleges and universities, historical societies, and museums) and used to gather information about materials already held locally that could be drawn upon as resources that could help reveal missing stories for the Community Archives Center.

A variety of local organizations and institutions attended these kickoff meetings including representatives from local colleges and universities, historical societies, cultural centers, neighborhood associations, city departments, and K-12 schools.

Some organizations that Trammell reached out to directly indicated that they would be interested in being contacted again about later project phases. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, some organizations were in flux in Fall and Winter 2021 and felt they may be in a better position to participate at a later date.

2.4.3 Meetings with new stakeholders

Throughout this project, the team sought to attract new partners, especially when those partners could provide access to key segments of the Tacoma community to which the team did not already have access. The team reached out to potential partner organizations or individuals and met with them to discuss the project.

For instance, the project’s initial list of partners did not include significant representation from Black communities in Tacoma. In response, Trammell met with the Tacoma-Pierce County Black Collective to present to them about the project. This organization has a wide reach and this presentation allowed Trammell to connect with nearly 100 individuals.

A form, the Black Collective Collection Materials Information Form, was prepared to allow attendees of this presentation to follow up if they were interested in being a contributor to the Project. As a result of this presentation, a number of individuals and organizations reached out to Trammell and some of these interactions have led to Phase II collaborations.

2.4.4 Sustaining Partnerships

It was important to keep partners engaged throughout the whole project. We initially planned to hold quarterly partner meetings but found scheduling across so many different types of organizations to be a major challenge. Instead, we began sending out email updates to partners.

As our relationships expanded, we included new partners on the distribution list. These emails were sent roughly every four months and included project news and ways for partners to become involved. These emails were a valuable way to tap into partner’s networks for various initiatives and often resulted in groups following up about partnering on particular initiatives mentioned in the messages.

We also followed up regularly with partners who had indicated an interest in being involved but for whom an actual partnership or project had not materialized. By staying in touch with these partners and sharing news about other collaborations, we were able to expand our partnerships and circle back with many groups to eventually realize a fully collaborative initiative.

2.4.5 Models for Collaboration

It was important to demonstrate various models for collaboration and to listen to partners when they indicated ways their organization could be involved. Many organizations are run by volunteers or limited staff and have varying capacity at any given point in time.

Many organizations expressed uncertainty early on in the project about how they would be involved. As we began demonstrating possible models for collaboration, organizations had examples of models that may already work for them.

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