Have clear goals. Partnerships should define goals at the outset in order to ensure clarity among partners, achieve desired results, and help guide the partnership through obstacles and challenges. Aim to achieve positive results and regularly measure progress. Regularly measuring results allows partnerships to assess whether activities and strategies are meeting goals, and what changes should be made to make partnership efforts more effective. Involve families and account for their needs and preferences when developing programs and services.
Families are the ultimate consumers of child care.
For services to be successful, they must address families' needs and be culturally and linguistically appropriate. This requires that families be involved in both designing and evaluating partnership programs. Be broad-based and include key stakeholders from the beginning. Partnerships are most effective when they are able to draw from a broad range of perspectives, resources, and expertise. Partnerships can gain broader public and private support for their efforts through the constituencies that each partner represents and supports.