Partnerships are critical to achieve priorities and elevate goals. Developing relationships with key partners provides a broader reach than just going alone. Partnerships allow tribes to leverage relationships to make the most of limited resources and be more efficient, save time, and assist parents in the process.
This page will help you identify, engage, and maintain lasting partnerships.
Identify
Conduct a “partnership inventory” to identify your current informal and formal partners. How can they be strengthened? What gaps exist that could benefit from cultivating additional program partnerships?
- Create a resource bank or contact list of education, training, and supportive services that your current and potential partners can provide to support parents as they prepare for, obtain, and sustain employment.
Resources
Engage
Create a brief presentation or pitch to describe your tribal child support program to potential partners. This information will help partners determine how they might work with you.
- Who: Describe the tribal child support program and who you serve
- What: Define program accomplishments such as children and families served, child support collected and distributed to families, and any specific information from the tribe
- How: Explain how you can work together to fulfill the combined goal of noncustodial parent employment. What are the needs of the tribal child support program and potential partners? The tribal child support program wants to support families by helping parents find and maintain employment. How can both programs mutually benefit from this partnership to support the tribal community? What resources are available to both programs?
Resources
- Tribal Child Support 101 Flyer
This flyer highlights core tribal child support services that programs can customize and use in outreach to parents.
2022 Tribal Infographic: Providing Support for Our Families (PDF)
This infographic provides a national view of tribal child support collections and the growing number of programs operated by tribes.
Establish and Maintain
Identify your partners and build strong relationships with them. Partners can develop and share long-term priorities and advance them together. Partnerships can be formal or informal.
Formal partnerships are established through a written and signed agreement such as Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). An MOU defines the common purpose, outlines the vision, goals, roles and responsibilities, and communication and information sharing protocols. An MOU helps to reinforce the government-to-government relationship and ensures the sustainability of the partnership.
Informal partnerships are formed with a shared understanding to support each other for a common purpose. Although there's no signed formal document, an informal partnership agreement could help to establish roles and responsibilities to ensure mutually beneficial outcomes.