Partnering to Advance Educational Initiatives

EDU 402 Community Partnership Project

Module: 7
Assignment: Community Partnership Research Project, Track A

Script and Questions:

Hello and thank you for taking the time to allow me to interview you today. Before we
get started, please share your
● Name Reed Steele
● Organization Partners in Education
● Title Director of Career Readiness & College & Career, Ready.Set.Go

Theme 1: Working Together for a Common Goal

● Please share an overview of your partnerships and why they were created.

“Our title is Partners in Education. We partner with organizations and other non-
profit organizations and business and community organizations. Together we
combine all of our skills in one mainstream to help our students. Our goal is to
help students prepare for high school and then careers, but not everyone is ready
for college or even college bound.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

● Can you please share how your partnership has advanced the mission of your
organization?

“If it weren’t for our partners we wouldn't be anywhere. Our goal is to broaden our
horizon and show them what is available to them and that is career opportunities.
We work with several universities around the area and other businesses to show
our students what is available to them. We bring them into those organizations to
show them what is available to them. If we didn’t have our partners, where could
we take them?” (Reed Steele, 2022).

Theme 2: Forming Partnerships

● What type of partnerships have you formed?
“We’re constantly forming partnerships. We’re working with an evening event
right now called Glasses in Session and it’s a theme where we have the parents
and students work together in multiple hands-on activities with a certain theme.
This theme is glass because Toledo is the Glass City, so there are a lot of career
opportunities there. They are giving us their knowledge and experience for this
event to show them what a career is like in working with glass.” (Reed Steele,
2022).

● When your organization forms a partnership does it create a formal partnership

agreement?

“Some of them do and some of them don’t. We have some groups where they will
represent their business and we step in there and we log the hours and
representation. When it comes to promos we have all of our sponsors, supporters
and partners listed.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

● How does your organization organize/finalize the partnership agreement,

whether it is a formal agreement or not?

“Oftentimes in our schools we have a memo of understanding a MOU which is

signed by both parties and we agree with what I will give you and what you will
support us with. We supply the curriculum, the transportation, the food for the
evening events and the materials. They will supply a classroom and a gymnasium
and other things like that.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

Theme 3: Management and Communication

● How is your partnership managed? (How are your partnerships managed?)

“Then we will go back to the MOU which is a great tool for managing the
responsibilities for everybody. The MOU is broken down into various parts;
purpose and scope, terms (when we start and finish), our responsibilities and
what our partner’s responsibilities are (what they’re expected to do), payments
and of course modification and termination if needed. When we go through this
we work together to create a schedule of what it will look like. I have six
education specialists and I assigned a specialist to that school to be the liaison
and the communicator and teach the curriculum that has already been set.” (Reed
Steele, 2022).

● Please describe a few of the challenges that your organization has faced during
its partnerships, and how did it overcome the challenges?
“For any non-profit organization is funding. You’ve got a great program with a
great cause and purpose and is successful. But when it comes to non-profit
organizations the funding doesn’t come all the time from purchases of services.
Some of our schools can make those purchases, but many don’t. Grant funding is
important. Corporate sponsorship is important. Private donors is important. One
of the biggest challenges is to get enough money to do what you do. To get the
funds to do what you do. Without that, it’s easy. Some do really well, some have
foundations, like the Toledo Zoo, they get the funding easily because they get the
media attention and they get the money. We in Partners in Education we’re a little
hole in the wall. We work with eighteen schools and in my program we’ve got
about twenty-five thirty schools. So the biggest challenge is probably funding,
that was a long way to get to that answer.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

● Do you have a Communication Plan?

“Yes we do. We have several different departments within Partners in Education.

We’re working with Americore who are working for Americore but they’re
assigned to us. On a weekly basis we meet as a team to discuss where we are,
where we need to go, what tools we need to move to the next step for every
single program. On my team I meet with all my education specialists every
Monday afternoon, aside from the emails, phone calls and office interaction, our
communication is that we discuss the lesson, the event, the activity, what do you
need, what problems you’re running into and challenges you’re having. Everyone
on the team helps each other out.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

● How do you communicate with partners? Does your organization use email,
newsletters, websites, conference calls, and/or any other tools?

“We use email, telephone communication and zoom meetings and remote
teaching and communication, we also meet directly.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

Theme 4: Work Plans and Activities

● How do you evenly distribute the work within the partnership?

“Let’s take it on two different levels, within ourselves and in our office. We have
six education specialists and 18 schools. A full time position is eighteen to
twenty sections. We add it all up to be about a forty hour work week. We split it
up depending on what that person is. We have some full-time people and we have
some part-time people. We distribute the duties compared to what their level is
whether their full-time, part-time or even seasonal or whatever the case may be.
Outside of the office we have different people in charge for different events.
Because they’re volunteers, we don’t want to over-work them or burn them out.
We have other people from other businesses or even from the same business to
work that event and they share the responsibilities within our partnership and
within their company. We also have career speakers and they come into the
classroom during the day and we have them speak about their career path and
the journey that it took them on.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

● Do you establish work plans to break down specific tasks?

“Yes. Yes on a regular basis. I have a procedure here for an evening event and
every single one of our education specialists does two evening events. And we
have a checklist and each one has their own duty and responsibility and
particular things that they’re supposed to do for that event.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

● What is your strategy to hold people accountable?

“We hire professionals. We have a system in place where when people are hired
there is usually a ninety day probation period. Let’s see if it works out, let's see if
it’s what they want. If they’re not happy they’re not going to make the students
happy they’re not going to be successful in what they’re doing. If they’re happy
and they’re good at what they do but they don’t know a specific thing that they’re
supposed to do then that’s on me. My job is to make sure everything is trained
properly. If we miss out on something we will reevaluate and take it step-by-step
to make sure that they have got it down. Really I haven’t had to go much further
than that.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

Theme 5: Partnership Evaluation

● Have you created measurable outcomes?

“Constantly. We have an outside evaluator for Partners in Education and every

year we hand all of our surveys, information and logs to our outside evaluator
who is very objective and what they’re job is to put it in a report explaining where
we were in the beginning of the year and where we’re at at the end of the year.
Explaining any progress the students have made any progress that we have
made and the expansions and growth that we have done. Every year that comes
out and we also give that to every single one of our partners and our schools to
see where they started.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

● How do you evaluate your partnerships?

“I wouldn’t say we evaluate the partnership, I would say we just have the
partnership. If the partnership works we keep it. I don’t know if we have ever said
that this partnership isn’t working out on paper and have canceled it. We have
sunsets where there is a start and ending time. It’s not simply that it’s not
working out, it’s just done, it’s completed. As far as partnerships with our
schools the MOU tells us the end of the time, which is the sunset time. It’s
evaluated by the final report given to that partner to demonstrate the end results.”
(Reed Steele, 2022).

Theme 6: Equity and Inclusion

● Have you introduced equity and inclusion into your partnership? How are they
effectively accomplished?

“Absolutely. I am going to be blunt, I am an old white guy. I think it’s really

important for kids to see somebody successful who looks like them. Whether
they’re male, female, African American, Asidan, Hispanic whatever the case may
be. We have a very diverse staff of educators and I am very proud of every single
one of them. They are so open minded to others who are not like themselves, who
do not look like themselves. Our staff is represented with diversity and when we
go into the classrooms they see that. All of our career speakers are a melting pot.
We’re a melting pot.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

Theme 7: Partnership Transitions and Endings

● Is this an ongoing partnership or does it have an ending date?

“Every single one of ours is its own individual answer. I will say each year we
have an ending date and then we usually pick it up in the next year in a new
partnership. We have continuing partnerships with many businesses and many
colleges and many private [community] organizations.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

● How have your partnerships transitioned?

“We all grow. We have an idea and we have a mission and we find out that when
we partner with somebody they have a similar mission. So if our missions are
blended together we grow faster. If our missions are partly blended together we
utilize each other in just an aspect of our mission.” (Reed Steele, 2022).

● What happens when a partnership ends?

“And there could be several reasons for a partnership to end. One, is the mission
was completed. Two, the date of termination was predetermined, the sunset.
Another might be the services of us or them might not be needed anymore. That’s
about it,” (Reed Steele, 2022).