PARTNERS FOR CHANGE - COMMUNITY RESIDENTS AND AGENCIES

Efforts to combine the knowledge and skills of community residents and diverse professionals to bring about community and service delivery c hange are becoming increasingly popular yet difficult to achieve. This article details, from the perspective of community residents and agen cy and university staff, the challenges, strategies, and benefits in d eveloping one community-agency collaborative which has successfully en gaged community residents. The program is located in a low-income, cul turally-diverse, densely populated urban area. Challenges faced by the partnership included recruiting residents, reducing logistical barrie rs to resident involvement, joining together residents and agency staf f, and aligning community and agency goals. Successful strategies in o vercoming these challenges included responding quickly to community co ncerns, developing more personal recruiting strategies, changing logis tics to enhance resident participation, increasing program visibility in the community, creating shared goals and vision, and training. Obse rved benefits include community residents believe their participation has resulted in personal, agency and neighborhood improvements and inc reased cross-cultural understanding.