Similarly to engaging with legislative support, having strong community partners is crucial to reaching your full community, creating opportunities, getting buy-in and trust to progress your action plan. Community partners can provide financial support, leadership support, activation opportunities and new ways to get messaging to community members.

The first step in engaging a community partner is to identify potential partners. Look back at your lists you started in lessons 1-5. This list should have local business owners, corporations, health systems, schools, news outlets, facilities, etc. Narrow down this list to partners that would have a mutual interest or benefit for partnering on your cause. An example might be Associated Food Stores and Parent’s Empowered messaging strategy around the importance of family dinner to prevent underage drinking.

While narrowing down your list, take time to discuss potential partnership ideas with the workgroup. Specifically, how you would like to partner with them. Do they have a space you can use for messaging display? Do they have funds they can contribute to a community event or activation? Are they a local hospital that is willing to distribute prescription drug misuse materials in discharge packets? Is it a local official who is willing to lend an endorsing voice to your efforts?