Museum & Community Partnerships: Collaboration Guide and additional resources

This guide offers an introduction to collaborations between museums and youth-serving community organizations. While this guide is designed specifically for museums and community organizations, much of the content contained in this document can be applied to all kinds and levels of partnerships. This guide includes an overview of why to collaborate, levels of partnerships, how to start a partnership, and a variety of resources to sustain and deepen your collaborative relationships. Sprinkled throughout this document is advice from experienced collaborators as well as examples of different ways museums and community organizations are collaborating to increase access for underserved audiences, improve STEM equity, increase school readiness, support family learning, and engage different audiences.

In addition to the guide resources to assist museums in creating and sustaining partnerships with youth-serving community organizations include: • video on "Creating Successful Collaborations:

• Museum and Community Partnerships" (5 minute video)
• memorandum of understanding (MOU) sample template,
• collaboration tips,
• profiles of national youth-serving organizations,
• sample text for invitation to collaborate on the Museum & Community Partnerships project

Collaborating with an existing youth-serving organization on STEM activities is an effective way for museums and university outreach programs to connect with audiences they may not regularly reach, particularly underserved audiences. The following profiles of national youth-serving organizations have been compiled to assist museums and university outreach programs in developing partnerships with a community organization or a local chapter of a national youth-serving organization. These profiles are intended to provide a brief introduction to each organization. Profiles include: 1. 4-H, 2. Afterschool Alliance, 3. Boys & Girls Clubs of America, 4. Boy Scouts of America, 5. Girls Inc., 6. Girl Scouts, 7. Libraries, 8. National Girls Collaborative Project, 9. Parent Teacher Association (PTA), 10. Y (YMCA), and 11. YWCA

Suggested Citation: 

McCarthy, C. and B. Herring (2015). Museum & Community Partnerships: Collaboration guide for museums working with community youth-serving organizations. Saint Paul, MN: Science Museum of Minnesota for the NISE Network. https://www.nisenet.org/collaboration-guide