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Our Mission and Values
CCPH Principles of Partnership
CCPH Staff
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Frequently Asked Questions

Our Mission and Values

To foster partnerships between communities and educational institutions that build on each other's strengths and develop their roles as change agents for improving health professions education, civic responsibility and the overall health of communities.

At CCPH we hold to the following values and beliefs:

• The fundamental need for healthier communities and the important role that communities play in their own well-being.  We believe that the power of shared ideas, resources, and experiences will help us all create healthier communities.
• Creating healthier communities and overcoming complex societal problems requires collaborative solutions which bring communities and institutions together as equal partners and build upon the assets, strengths, and capacities of each.  As an organization, we strive to develop collaborative relationships with other organizations.
• Collaboration must be inclusive to succeed.  We view inclusion as a strength and a centerpiece of all of our activities.  Our language and actions must reflect our commitment to inclusion.
• The importance of creating learning opportunities which foster the equitable exchange of knowledge and ideas between communities and educational institutions.

• Creating and expanding opportunities for individuals and organizations to collaborate and exchange resources and information relevant to community-campus partnerships.
• Promoting awareness about the benefits of community-campus partnerships.
• Advocating for policies needed in the public and private sectors that facilitate and support community-campus partnerships.
• Promoting service-learning as a core component of health professions education.

Click here to view magnetic poetry that reflects CCPH's mission and values.

Principles of Good Community-Campus Partnerships 

Principles of Good Community-Campus Partnerships
Adopted by the CCPH Board of Directors, October 2006

At the essence of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health are partnerships. Partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions as a strategy for social change are gaining recognition and momentum. In their truest form, these partnerships require time and commitment and have the power to transform the individuals and institutions that are part of them. As such, partnerships are an effective tool in ultimately improving health in our communities. Despite being formed with the best of intentions, however, authentic partnerships are very difficult to achieve.

In 2005, the CCPH board of directors embarked on a series of discussions to reexamine the CCPH Principles of Good Community-Campus Partnerships. These principles were first adopted in 1998. The board asked, are the principles still relevant today; do they need updating or revision? Our discussions paralleled and have been informed by the Community Partner Summit held in April 2006 at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, WI where 23 experienced community partners, including several CCPH board members, convened to provide a community voice to the advancement of authentic community-higher education partnerships. During the Summit, community partners articulated "what is working" and "what is not working" in community-campus partnerships from their perspective, and developed a framework for authentic partnerships. The revised CCPH Principles of Good Community-Campus Partnerships below were adopted by the CCPH board in October 2006.

The purpose of the Principles of Good Community-Campus Partnerships is to help clarify terms of engagement and expectations between partners. These principles are not intended to be prescriptive or to be adopted verbatim, but instead to provide a starting point or framework for discussion when forming or periodically reflecting on the progress of our partnerships. We believe the process of discussing the principles of a partnership is at least as important as the adoption of principle themselves. Partnerships are at different stages of development and thus the principles provide guidance along the road towards ideal, authentic relationships. The authenticity of a partnership is likely best determined by the consensus of the members of the partnership itself.

If you use the CCPH Principles of Good Community-Campus Partnerships, we'd like feedback on how they were used and in what ways, if any, they were of assistance in your work. Please send your feedback to us by email or by mail: CCPH, UW Box 354809, Seattle, WA 98195-4809

• Partnerships form to serve a specific purpose and may take on new goals over time.
• Partners have agreed upon mission, values, goals, measurable outcomes and accountability for the partnership.
• The relationship between partners is characterized by mutual trust, respect, genuineness, and commitment.
• The partnership builds upon identified strengths and assets, but also works to address needs and increase capacity of all partners.
• The partnership balances power among partners and enables resources among partners to be shared.
• Partners make clear and open communication an ongoing priority by striving to understand each other's needs and self-interests, and developing a common language.
• Principles and processes for the partnership are established with the input and agreement of all partners, especially for decision-making and conflict resolution.
• There is feedback among all stakeholders in the partnership, with the goal of continuously improving the partnership and its outcomes.
• Partners share the benefits of the partnership's accomplishments.
• Partnerships can dissolve and need to plan a process for closure.

Principles of Good Community-Campus Partnerships
Adopted by the CCPH board of directors, October 1998

Through conference sessions, focus groups, surveys, interviews and literature reviews between January 1997 and April 1998, CCPH involved its members and partners in developing principles of community-campus partnerships. The principles below were discussed at the April 1998 CCPH conference and approved by the CCPH board of directors in October 1998. Click here for the principles translated into Spanish and Portuguese.

Please click on any principle below to view an article about how to put that principle into practice (printable with Adobe Acrobat Reader)

• Partners have agreed upon mission, values, goals, and measurable outcomes for the partnership.
• The relationship between partners is characterized by mutual trust, respect, genuineness, and commitment.
• The partnership builds upon identified strengths and assets, but also addresses areas that need improvement.
• The partnership balances power among partners and enables resources among partners to be shared.
• There is clear, open and accessible communication between partners, making it an ongoing priority to listen to each need, develop a common language, and validate/clarify the meaning of terms.
• Roles, norms, and processes for the partnership are established with the input and agreement of all partners.
• There is feedback to, among, and from all stakeholders in the partnership, with the goal of continuously improving the partnership and its outcomes.
• Partners share the credit for the partnership's accomplishments.
• Partnerships take time to develop and evolve over time

Assessing the CCPH Principles of Partnership in a Community-Campus Partnership - authored by CCPH member Julie Bell-Elkins, Director, Office of Social Issues and Wellness, Framingham State College, as part of her 2002 doctoral dissertation, Case Study of a Successful Community-Campus Partnership: Changing the Environment Through Collaboration

Case Study for the Principles of Partnership: Best Beginnings — A Child Abuse Prevention Program in New York City- authored by Anne Reiniger, CCPH Fellow, this case study used the CCPH Principles of Partnership to reflect on a successful 10-year old partnership's work and to identify the ingredients of a toolkit for other communities in developing community-campus partnerships.

View our publications page to order a copy of the issue of our magazine "Partnership Perspectives", featuring articles on each principle of partnership.

Click here for instructions for the "CCPH Partnership Polka", based on the CCPH principles of partnership and developed by Amy Hilzman of the Lifelong AIDS Alliance of Seattle, WA