In 2023, Ithaka S+R embarked on a project to make higher education after reentry more accessible by fostering partnerships between college-based programs and community organizations that serve incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, or system-impacted students. For a full year, we worked directly with a cohort of 10 college programs and 10 community organizations in order to understand how they found collaborators and developed, grew, sustained, and formalized partnerships. We were particularly interested in learning what challenges each type of institution faced and what additional supports or resources might help to strengthen or improve collaborations.

This project built on lessons learned during our work on technology implementation for higher education in prisons, which demonstrated the importance of, and numerous challenges to, cross-departmental, cross-agency, and cross-organizational communication, collaboration, and planning in delivering education services inside. The first publication of this research study on college and community partnerships suggested why colleges and universities should invest in developing services and programs geared toward supporting students who are reintegrating or otherwise impacted by the criminal legal system.

Playbook coverBringing that experience to our year-long cohort engagement, we aimed to work with and learn from cohort participants in order to develop not just a body of evidence or information, but a set of practical tools, tips, considerations, and resources to help catalyze and maintain collaboration between colleges and community organizations. So, this represents a shift in trying to answer “why” colleges and universities should attend to reentry and reintegration, and toward trying to provide resources to help them determine “how” they can best do that. As much of our previous research emphasized, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The playbook we released today, and the accompanying workbook, will help college-based programs and community-based organizations develop partnerships that leverage each others’ expertise, avoid duplicating efforts, and strategically plan to help mitigate structural issues and sustain or expand programming that better serves students impacted by the criminal legal system.

What we learned

Through the year-long cohort engagement, which included convenings, one-on-one conversations, and community calls, participants identified four areas that were central to building and sustaining effective partnerships.

  • Mission, strategy, and collaboration: Clear goals, roles, and responsibilities help partners to align their work and manage capacity. Formalizing can also help sustain partnerships through staff turnover and organizational change.
  • Infrastructure and capacity: Limited staff, funding, and infrastructure can make collaboration difficult. Strong systems for onboarding, data management, and case management can help partners coordinate more effectively and sustain their work.
  • Student supports: Students need coordinated support for housing, employment, transportation, healthcare, and other basic needs alongside academic support. Partnerships can help connect students to these resources while addressing campus policies that create barriers.
  • Funding and storytelling: Short-term funding can make partnerships difficult to sustain. Diversified funding, clear measures of impact, and effective storytelling can help with institutional investment and sustainability.

From findings to practice

The challenges that surfaced from the cohort demonstrated a need for practical resources that can help organizations move from identifying barriers to taking action. We developed this playbook to translate what we learned into tools, exercises, and guidance, while highlighting promising practices from our cohort participants. Together, these resources are designed to help organizations build stronger partnerships, address common challenges, and plan for long-term sustainability. The playbook is organized around four areas that address some of the challenges that cohort members had originally identified while also supplying practical guidance on building and sustaining partnerships:

  1. Finding the right partners: Identifying complementary organizations and building collaborative relationships.
  2. Aligning and setting shared goals: Establishing shared goals, mission, roles within a partnership.
  3. Reviewing campus policies and practices: Identifying institutional policies and practices that support and create barriers for formerly incarcerated students.
  4. Planning for sustainability: Building sustainable partnerships by examining current practices related to onboarding, staff transitions, funding, data, and storytelling.

Who it is designed for

This playbook is designed for programs and organizations that support students who are formerly incarcerated as they pursue higher education outside the prison. It can be helpful for the following audiences:

Community-Based Organizations

Community-based organizations can use this playbook to build and strengthen partnerships with college-based programs, clarify roles and shared goals, and develop strategies for sustaining collaborations that support formerly incarcerated students through re-entry and the transition to campus.

College-Based Programs and College Administrators

College-based programs and staff can use this playbook to Identify and engage community-based partners, strengthen coordination around student needs, and address campus policies and practices that can create barriers for formerly incarcerated students

Other stakeholders who may be interested

Students

Students can use the playbook to learn more about the roles colleges and community organizations can play in supporting reentry and educational goals. It can also be used as an advocacy tool by using the playbook’s questions and tools to help navigate and improve available resources and services.

Policymakers, Technical Assistance Providers, Researchers, and Community Advocates

A broad array of stakeholders will likely be able to learn from and make use of the playbook. While this playbook is intended as a set of practical tools and interventions, not an evidentiary foundation to establish best practices, the tips, considerations, and broader learnings may help inspire other context-specific strategies and interventions. It can also help frame important questions about how agencies, organizations, and institutions partner with one another to serve students.