Community Partnerships

   The above benefits work pretty well when seen as objectives to be met for your own efforts in community partnership. While your service will probably come up with its own unique objectives, the path to attaining them must follow a few common steps.

Determine what you want

   Determine what you want out of the partnership and the benefits you hope to gain from it. Every EMS provider finds it easy to prattle on in vague generalities about problems they see, but most have trouble finding specific things that can be fixed to improve the situation. Think hard about the exact issues, and focus the goal into something that can generally be summed up in one sentence. The simpler the issue, the better your results will be and the easier it will be to ask the community to partner with you to achieve success.

Set benchmark goals to keep on track

   How will you measure success? How will you know if your efforts are paying off or when you need to try harder? You can't change what you can't measure, and setting measurable goals makes your progress a lot easier. When you measure your outcomes, you can see if what you are doing is moving you toward your goal. Make the goals questions as close to "yes" or "no" as you can. When you get a "no" answer, try a different approach.

Identify individuals and organizations that might help you achieve your goals

   Let's say your community has a problem with bedridden patients who are stuck in houses that are hard to access because of exterior steps. It's killing your providers, because they have to carry these people out of the most inaccessible back bedrooms, it usually takes more than one crew to accomplish the task, and it always causes aggravation. Whom would you want to help solve this problem? If it were me, I'd see if there is a community group with volunteers available to build ramps or better steps for these houses, to help remodel for accessibility of cots, or to make a better place for the patient inside the house. Perhaps the city or local building code enforcement could be brought in to expedite permitting, waive fees and/or provide technical consulting. I'd also contact local building material suppliers to see if they would offer a discount, or even donate some materials to the cause. Senior services agencies could be a big help in bringing in resources as well. Look for people with complementary missions and engage their help. Remember to scratch their back if they scratch yours.

Plan the project and identify the steps you need to take

   How will you do what you need to do? Will you engage a philanthropic community group to pay a percentage of your unrecoverable debt from 9-1-1 patients who can't pay? Develop a mathematical formula to determine the percentage of the cost multiplied by the number of calls meeting determined "unrecoverable" criteria. Set the benefit patients will receive and the criteria they will have to meet to receive funds. Will you seek community donations to cover the cost? Where and how will you solicit donations? What are your accounting controls? Plan out the steps and try to identify problems before they happen. The better you plan, the better the project will run. However, always remember that "the 'perfect' is the enemy of the 'good enough'," meaning if you wait until things are absolutely perfect before proceeding, you'll never move forward toward your goal.

Communication is key!

   Be sure to keep a constant stream of information going; that's what partners do. Don't play the game that "knowledge is power." Keep information flowing to everyone involved, including the community. Involve the media to spread the word, and give them positive information to report for a change. Don't play political games; participate equally in the project and do your share.

   This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it's a good start for your organization. All of the above steps are necessary to achieve success. Tailor them to meet your specific goals.