Collaboration: The action of working with someone to produce or create something
It’s one of the trending buzzwords in society these days and appears to be an idea that is straightforward and concise at first glance. The idea is built on the principle that everyone enjoys feeling involved in meaningful work that is centralized around a common goal. In the world of PROSPER, our team leaders work with established community individuals and organizations who are invested in empowering both youth and parents to build strong families in our communities.
While collaboration is an attractive word for recruiting purposes, it’s important to focus on what successful collaboration really looks like for everyone involved. It’s based on building a foundation of trust and common goals while genuinely learning from other individuals and organizations about what their mission and values are and why they want to be involved in being on our community PROSPER teams. After learning of everyone’s motivation for wanting to be involved with building strong families in the communities they serve, it’s crucial to develop your team’s mission and values as a roadmap to guide your ideas.
As a Minnesota transplant to the area, I’m excited to bring our Penn State PROSPER programming to Susquehanna County school districts while learning more about the area and meeting those who are invested in developing family ties. I’ve been fortunate to work in a variety of environments promoting wellness to understand that even well-intentioned programs can fail to become sustainable if there isn’t investment from all those involved in the programming. It is with this mindset that I am hoping to be able to meet those individuals, organizations, and families throughout Susquehanna County who are invested in seeing positive changes in family relationships for future generations.
(As a sidenote: feel free to let me know if you have any must see places for me to check out in the area!)
Do you live in Susquehanna County and have interest in bringing the PROSPER program to YOUR school district? Contact Amber Hughes at aph5853@psu.edu
