Community Partners - Peer Learning Groups

Peer Learning Groups

Project leaders strengthen their skills

The Mission

Community Partners brings together leaders of projects at similar stages of development and facilitates bi-monthly sessions where project leaders can network and exchange ideas for growth and insights about entrepreneurial management.

Peer Learning Groups

For the busy project leaders who come together bi-monthly for the Peer Learning Group, just the time alone to sit and reflect with colleagues comes as a luxury both rare and valuable. “We’re able to think about the larger issues,” says Belinda Walker of Girls and Gangs, an organization that enables incarcerated girls to build constructive lives. “It’s something nonprofit directors really need but rarely have time for.”

Group members collaborate and learn from one another’s experiences while sharing strategies and tips on everyday matters that many find to be universal. In reflecting upon his participation in the Peer Learning Group, another project leader commented, “I benefited by hearing different perspectives on things and I always left having more tools in my toolbox.”

Often, what participants find most beneficial is the perspective they gain on their own development when they see that others have faced similar challenges along the way. “It really validates your experience,” said Kathy Cass of Chance to Dance. “You don’t feel so alone when you see that others have had similar problems.”

How Community Partners Helps

Discussion topics are determined by the peer learning group while Community Partners provides the space, facilitator, relevant readings and other topical resources.

SOURCE: Community Partners 2003-2004 Biennial Report

PROJECT STATUS: As of Fall 2006, peer learning networks are a continuing part of Community Partners' programs.

To learn more about peer learning, read Community Partner's special report:

Peer Learning: A Partnership for Growth (PDF 369KB)
This report details how peer learning – the convening of individuals at similar stages of development to exchange knowledge and mutually enhance skills and capabilities – can strengthen the work of community-based organizations.

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