Part 5: Finding community partners
There are many different potential community partners and each local area will have its own ‘community ecosystem’.
Community partners can include (but are not limited to!):
- Archives
- Arts centres
- Charities/organisations supporting older people
- Community centres
- Citizens Advice Bureaus
- Cultural centres
- Disability charities and support groups
- Faith centres and groups
- Festivals
- Food banks
- Further Education colleges
- GP Practices
- Hairdressers
- Hospices
- Hospitals
- Law centres
- Museums
- Organisations supporting homeless people
- Organisations supporting refugees
- Parent/carer support groups
- Parks and green space management teams
- Public libraries
- Social housing providers
- Schools
- Skills/employment providers
- Sports centres and groups
- Theatres
- Uniform groups (e.g. Scouts)
- Walking groups
- Youth charities and services
- Youth Offending Teams
Local Authorities often work across a range of services and priorities and may be able to signpost local groups or support local partnership engagement. However, as they are large organisations, the public library service and/or Further Education colleges may be useful ‘entry points’ into wider Local Authority partnerships.
There may also be local partnership groups and consortia that you could approach e.g. Local Enterprise Partnerships, Voluntary Action Groups and Cultural Education Partnerships.
You may also be able to consult a community asset map to find potential partners for example Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Asset Map.
The NCCPE hosts a national community partner network. This includes a JISCMAIL group for community organisations who are interested in working with academic partners which could be a useful resource to identify possible partners.