Evaluating Relationships with Community Partners

Teryn Heckers
Teryn Heckers
@teryn-heckers
9 years ago
5 posts

Hello everyone!

I work at a large university medical center and use ABCD in my work building relationships with different partners in our community. I'm working on developing a process to evaluate the relationships we have with our community partners, and I was wondering if anyone has any info on this topic.

The purpose of the evaluations is to evaluate the health of our relationships, catch any problems when they're small, etc.


updated by @teryn-heckers: 10/25/16 01:27:32PM
Ron Dwyer-Voss
Ron Dwyer-Voss
@ron-dwyer-voss
9 years ago
48 posts

Hi Teryn!

I am a co-founder of this site and am thrilled to see you/UCDavis here. I live in South Natomas and would be happy to meet or chat by phone on ways to assess and improve your relationships with community partners. Maybe we could develop a tool that we could share with the rest of ABCDinACtion.

The program you work with is so innovative and valuable!

Let me know if you want to chat,

Ron Dwyer-Voss

Teryn Heckers
Teryn Heckers
@teryn-heckers
9 years ago
5 posts

Hi Ron,

I grew up in South Natomas! What a small world!

anyway, I would love to meet up. It might be easier to plan something over email - do you want to message me at theckers@ucdavis.edu?

John Hamerlinck
John Hamerlinck
@john-hamerlinck
9 years ago
50 posts

Hi Teryn,

The fact that you want to measure relationships is an indication that you value relationships. That's a great place to start. I have two thoughts.

First, one of the most important aspects of any relationship is trust. I'm sure there is a social scientist out there who will tell you that you can quantify trust (I trust you 7, I trust you 4.6 . . .), but I'm not sure I'd want to engage in that research. I think that those kinds of numbers diminish the value of relationship building. I would look for stories that provide evidence of trust.

Secondly, I would focus the evaluation on contribution rather than attribution. How multiple people contribute to a whole paints a picture of relationship. How did people's actions complement the actions of others? Did they act knowing this connection in advance? What actions in collaborative work were not based on contractual agreements, or exchange of some sort?

Best of luck.

Teryn Heckers
Teryn Heckers
@teryn-heckers
9 years ago
5 posts

Hi John,

Thank you for your feedback! I agree with both of your points. I'm particularly happy you mentioned your second point. That is a point I had not thought a lot about yet, but I think it's really key to what I'm trying to do.

When I have a draft of my evaluation form completed would it be okay if I ask for your feedback on it?

Thank you!

John Hamerlinck
John Hamerlinck
@john-hamerlinck
9 years ago
50 posts

Of course.

Ian Cunningham
Ian Cunningham
@ian-cunningham
8 years ago
11 posts

Hi Teryn,

I'd be interested in your findings on evaluating relationship health if you're able to share here or offline.

Regards,

Ian

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