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Community Partners
VUE Number 7, Spring 2005
An interview with Elana Karopkin  Audio Clip 3
Elana Karopkin is principal of the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice in Brooklyn, New York.
If another school were to start to look for partners, what would be the one thing you would tell them to do?
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TEXT VERSION:
I would definitely say they would need to think about what their core values are and what their core needs are, and to find partners that directly speak to those core values and to those core needs. Everybody wants to have a great drama program in their school, or an incredible music program, or even lawyers coming in and doing things, but if it's not mission-specific to what is already going on at the school, then there's no way that it's sustainable. So I think it's a true self-inventory on the part of the school and a true inventory of potential partners in terms of what they can provide and making sure those two things are a real match.
In terms of sustainability, there are partnerships that we had to say no to, because even though we thought that their missions did dovetail perfectly with ours, they charged, or even though they were free, it wasn't an exact right match. It's important that the partnership forwards both the mission of the school and the mission of the organization. Because only then do you have a vested interest on both sides to nurture and grow the partnership.
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