Building Partnerships and Capacity for Coordinated Transportation Wisconsin Mobility Management Training Program September 9, 2009 8:00 – 9:30; I am …. Department of Education – I write and administer grants, and I oversee technical assistance and dissemination projects. Co-chair of united we ride – education and TA workgroup My passion is providing people with tools to facilitate change, improvement, and capacity building It is in this context that I speak with you My experience for the last twenty years has been vocational rehabilitation, business, and education. Language I use may lean toward that – You are the experts here – in your work…mobility management – and coordinating transportation services in your community. I am here to give you some tools, to learn from you regarding how united we ride can support your work, and hopefully learn how we can better integrate into transportation.. And now our agenda.. Judy L. Shanley, Ph.D. Education Program Specialist US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Co-Chair, Education and Technical Assistance Workgroup, United We Ride No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any product, commodity, service or enterprise referred to in this presentation is intended or should be inferred. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Education.

We Have a lot of Time Together…. Establishing and Sustaining Communities of Practice What, how, why Leveraging Partnerships to Facilitate Change and Improvement Garnering support Conducting needs assessment Acquiring resources Implementing innovations Evaluating and scaling-up Start with a community – I have talked with many of your prior to meeting This is a community – how to extend that out to a more heterogeneous group So we will learn how to use a community framework to build partnerships – facilitate change – not rocket science Aligned with much of the framework for action tools – from United We Ride

And More Tomorrow… US Department of Education Resources Data and Needs What’s Next – how can we work together?

Our Learning Today… Share experiences Not one expert Respect Interactive Have fun Let’s apply… Some norms – ground rules I talked to several of your prior to the meeting – thank you…will see some quotes from them through the next day ½. I also asked them to help me. Interactive – times that I will ask you to get up and move around…

- Need support of community – need support of others to help build solutions.

Communities of Practice I established communities across the place that I work..osep about eight years ago….still am involved. Wrote language in our grant priorities – now we expect our TA providers to implement communities in their projects. How many of you have heard of cops? Communities of Practice build from business model Applied in education Applied in OSEP about five years ago Squishy – I was a non-believer – I link structure - paths What are they, and why do they matter?

I would not have been able to take on this additional responsibility related to mobility management if I did not have the support of this community…. Jackie’s Story….. WI Mobility Manager August 7, 2009 Personal conversation with a peer – in August Janet – discussion…this is her thinking..

What are communities of practice? “ Groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger, 2002).

Metaphor of a tree – each leaf or branch is important Domain is the content of what you do – its why you have a community Practices are the what you do…what activities – what forums – what mechanisms do you use? Community is the sense of participation – sense of identify Foundation – or roots – joint enterprise and activity

Mobility Manager Community What is your domain? What are your practices? What does it mean to be part of this community? Share your experiences regarding communities of practice…

- From a colleague…what is a community of practice

School graphics…listening is key! Ever feel like life is such a whirlwind – we don’t take time to listen Communities give you that platform..

The domain… Membership implies a commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people. They value their collective competence and learn from each other, even though few people outside the group may value or even recognize their expertise. Community members have some knowledge of a particular topic…it’s the what… Sometimes communities are not highly regarded – especially if it’s a political or contentions issues.

The practice… Members of a CoP are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems- in a short and sustained interaction. - Practionners in a sense that they are interested in application…

The community… In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other.

As a Mobility Manager, Are you involved in a Community of Practice? Describe the characteristics of this community. What are the activities of your community? What are the benefits or advantages of using a CoP? What makes the Community successful? - Think about any communities you may involved in outside of this mobility manager community – back in Osh , Madison, etc.

Variations: CoPs are Flexible! Large, medium, small Within organizations, or including members from various organizations Meet face-to-face, or online - Not one size fits all…

A CoP strategy can… offer a way to solve complex problems; promote the spread of best practices; develop members’ professional skills Heterogeneity of people… Best practices – an example – I am involved in a community of educators, parents around the topic of inclusion – LRE – we pulled evidence together on best practices – developed a tool…

Advantages of working as a CoP Broader communication and dissemination of information; Ability to look more deeply at issues; Access to information about real world implementation

More advantages of CoP… Better feedback on emerging ideas Connections to stakeholders with influence Alliances with intended beneficiaries

- Pertains to how we learn – you will hear more about this later today – when we talk about engagement – school – hopefully you see some of this in the change process work we will do later today.

Long term benefits Access to existing networks Creation of new allies Deeper networks for dissemination - Have you experienced this? Access to information you would not have ever thought about…

Long term benefits Increased likelihood of sustainable solutions Synergy across levels on implementation Ongoing feedback mechanisms for stakeholder input Members buy into it….therefore – it is sustainable. - in the process of developing solutions – you learn about implementation – especially important for scaling up…

Why TAcommunities To bridge knowledge–practice gap To provide TA to all who desire and/or need it To move promising practices beyond pockets of excellence Tacommunities is our work – dept of ed…why did we do it? Accused of being too removed…FTA – same? Not a lot of financial investment – develop own solutions….. Our communities are comprised of researchers, administrators, educators --- so we definitely have the research to practice pipeline – think about your external communities – transportation providers, policymakers, human service providers. We viewed the community platform as a ta tool… We knew we had really smart people in sped world…but, we were siloed – our use of community helped diffuse the knowledge 25

The Work Enhancing the capacity to support coordinated transportation…. So – now what we will do is give you some tools and a framework for carrying out this work… The change process Should be about 9:30 now – take a break until 9:45

Next – implementing change – building capacity. THE NEXT STEP…

- As you go to break -- ….I hope you will use the tools that we will share over time to turn impossible situations…into opportunities!

http://www.tacommunities.org www.ideapartnership.org http://www.tadnet.org Some OSEP resources…. End at 9:30 a.m. 29