Event Collaboration & Co-Sponsorship
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The professional and student staff of
WesWELL are eager to collaborate with student organizations and other
departments on health education events. We also offer our co-sponsorship
and other forms of support, even if it is simple as an unstaffed table of
educational materials on a particular health issue for your event.
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If your organization is
planning a health-related event and is looking for ideas or resources, you
are encouraged to discuss it with a WesWELL
staff member or
Peer Health Advocate
early in your planning stages in order to see how WesWELL might be of
assistance. Funding assistance for student organizations is also available
through the HealthFull
Words Fund. |
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What is Collaboration?
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| Collaboration helps to
build new and needed relationships between student groups and even with
campus offices. We encourage you to collaborate with groups you do not
already know and interact with on a regular basis. We especially hope to
encourage atypical new bonds and relationships on campus as many health
issues affect everyone, even though they may impact various populations
differently. |
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Coexistence
At this end of the spectrum, organizations may have similar or identical
missions and goals, but they don’t do anything about it. They just exist.
They may or may not know about each other. They may duplicate each others’
efforts or even compete with each other for the same resources.
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Co-sponsorship
Organizations realize that other groups may be sympathetic to the goals of
an event they have planned. An officer of the group that has an event
planned contacts an officer of a group that has a similar mission and asks
for support of the planned event. If the approached group is supportive,
they may agree to give funds and to publicize the event among their own
membership. Generally, co-sponsorships are recognized by the supporting
group’s name or logo being added to the bottom of publicity pieces produced
for the event. Technically, nobody from either organization would ever have
to meet each other!
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Coordination
Organizations try to make sure that their efforts don’t conflict with or
duplicate the efforts of other groups who are doing similar things. You
might coordinate through listservs, the events calendar or you might contact
individual members of the other groups in order to learn about their plans.
You might set up your events so that they seem like a logical sequence with
each other. You try not to detract from each other’s efforts. Small groups
of members may end up meeting each other through these contacts, mainly
because they’re trying to find out how to "not step on each other’s toes."
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Cooperation
Organizations realize that they each have something different to offer to
the same cause. They make the effort to develop specific programs that will
complement each other’s efforts. Each group contributes a separate and
distinct piece of the overall puzzle…they fit together precisely, but they
are still separate. It’s more likely that group members will meet each
other, because they want to figure out what the precise fit will look like.
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Collaboration
At this end of the spectrum, organizations start by realizing that their
mission may have something in common with another group’s mission. A group
may have a kernel of an idea that would fulfill another group’s mission as
well. The groups explore the idea of collaborating — working together — on
envisioning, planning and implementing an effort that fulfills the goals of
both groups. A separate "Collaborative" subgroup may be created from members
of both groups. The folks involved in the subgroup get to know each other
well, and introduce other members from the groups to each other during the
implementation. The process of working together is the crucial element.
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| Adapted
from materials created by the UW-Madison University Health Services
http://www.uhs.wisc.edu/display_story.jsp?id=616&cat_id=110
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Contact the WesWELL Staff |
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revised
05/02/2008 |
