Stone Soup: A Recipe for Successful Coalitions

Three soldiers, tired and hungry, trudged down the road in a strange land. Villagers hid every morsel of food so that when the soldiers asked to share a meal, there was nothing. "Well, then," said the soldiers, "we'll have to make some stone soup." Amazed, the villagers brought a large pot filled with water and built a fire. The soldiers dropped three round stones into the pot saying, "Stones like these generally make good soup. But oh, if there were carrots, it would be much better." "Why, I think I have a carrot or two," said one villager, who brought back an apron full. And so it went. Each time the soldiers agreed that the soup would be good but could be better with another ingredient, it was mysteriously produced. When the soup was ready, everyone feasted together. Never had the villagers tasted such delicious soup. And made from stones, fancy that (Brown, 1947).

Every librarian can relate to those tired soldiers trudging through a strange land. Changes in societal needs and the booming technology surge have challenged librarians with demands beyond comprehension just a few years ago. And yet, as in the making of stone soup, others are willing - albeit sometimes with initial reluctance and skepticism - to contribute positive solutions and to share the satisfying taste of success.

But someone must start the process. And who within communities is more qualified to do this than librarians? Most already cooperate with other libraries through interlibrary loans and cooperative collection development. Most, through their role as information providers, also have at least superficial contact with the majority of community organizations and agencies. The next step - community coalitions - is a natural progression. Communities will likely applaud library efforts in this regard and will see them as viable partners in this increasingly global society. However, coalitions don't just happen - a great deal of planning and building go into the process. Those soldiers probably spent many a hungry night before the stone soup plan was realized.

Recognize the Need for Coalitions

The Pekin Public library offers its experiences with the Pekin Intergenerational Network (PIN) as an example of the kind of community coalition that can be formed by a library and jointly sustained with community partners. After reading the PIN story, you will understand that any library, from Chicago and its suburbs to the smallest towns of southern Illinois, can be a coalition builder. While PIN is an intergenerational coalition of service providers, a coalition with a business, technology or education focus would face the same challenges and rewards. For maximum effectiveness, any coalition should also include an intergenerational mix of partners.

PIN'S story began with the library's first Share the Magic Christmas program for grandparents and grandchildren in 1987. Located near Pekin's downtown retail district, the library decided to help businesses boost sales by planning a program to give parents shopping time while their children were at the library with their grandparents. A wonderful gesture to be sure, but downtown businesses decided not to remain open the night of the program. Nonetheless, the program attracted a capacity crowd and the enthusiasm of both audience and library staff for this initial intergenerational effort generated a steady shift in direction toward such programming. Before long it became evident that it was impossible for the library alone to provide adequate community-wide programming of this type. Wouldn't it be great, we wondered, if networking with other service providers could strengthen library programs while at the same time help others reach their own goals.

The library evaluated and supplemented its resources for intergenerational programming, then compiled a bibliography. Next, local service providers

* Joan Wood, Public Services Coordinator, Pekin Public Library.

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and nearby libraries were invited to a library-sponsored workshop that showcased the new materials, featured established intergenerational activities and provided an opportunity for networking. Those who attended reveled in the opportunity to network with others who had similar goals. "It stimulated my thinking of the possibilities of what we can do"; "It was great learning what others are doing" said two who made comments on workshop evaluation forms. Workshop participants included those who would become the original eight Pekin Intergenerational Network partners four years later.

When the library invited the workshop group to a follow-up planning session several months later, a smaller group attended. Among the questions addressed: What are we doing now? How can we team up? What's the next step? When current activities of those in attendance were discussed, instant link-ups were planned. The park district and senior center would cooperate on a Christmas time baby-sitting afternoon. Teachers would meet a request for Meals on Wheels tray favors. Others would work on planning student-senior field trips. Still, no one felt that there was time to fit one more monthly meeting into his or her schedule, and the idea of a formal alliance was nixed. All agreed to keep in touch, though and ask for assistance from members of the group when needed. It was a fragile, informal arrangement but one more move toward a community coalition.

Take Steps to Develop a Team

Meanwhile, the library continued to participate in cooperative intergenerational projects whenever possible with other libraries, agencies, schools and nursing homes. But we kept dreaming of the possibilities. I like to look at it from the following perspective. Young elementary students are sometimes given a science assignment to plant a single bean seed to study plant growth. After each child plants the seed, waters it and sets it in the sun, he soon sees a beautiful little plant emerge. In and of itself this single seed teaches a lesson about life and growth. But, going a step further, when you travel across Illinois in the summer and see field after field of soybeans growing, you begin to realize that, planted together, these seeds have the potential to feed the world. One library versus a coalition; think about it.

Grants are often the impetus for moving initiatives forward, and in recent years the Illinois State Library and other agencies have wisely encouraged or required partnerships for grant applications. It was this requirement that finally brought Pekin Intergenerational Network to fruition. The Pekin Pubic Library received a small Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) grant for 1995-96 to create a model interagency coalition designed to help service agencies collectively utilize resources and prevent duplication of services. The grant application included letters of support from seven other community agencies that agreed to participate in the project.

Participants chose Pekin Intergenerational Network as the name for the newly formed coalition and agreed to meet monthly, with meetings sites rotating to familiarize members with each others' facilities. The first meeting concluded with a brainstorming session that produced a long list of project ideas, most of which could be closely identified with the specific agency presenting them. It was apparent that time would be needed to turn our group of eight autonomous members into a truly collaborative group.

PIN members first requested and received a mayoral proclamation of "Pekin Intergenerational Week," then sponsored a contest for local elementary school students to design a network logo. Fourth-grade contest winner Tiffany Dile showed that children sometimes grasp concepts beyond their years when she drew two hands holding a globe and titled it "Holding the World Together."

PIN named a task force to come up with a community project that would involve all members but not be identified with any single agency. The result was Hearts and Hands Day. Students were recruited to rake leaves for seniors and then share refreshments and conversation with them. PIN members worked together toward this end, learning more about one another and beginning a collection of stories that would build cohesiveness within the network. We still laugh about one PIN member's story of working with and supervising leaf-raking students. He looked up from his raking to find that the home's senior has whisked the students inside for hot chocolate and cookies, leaving him outside working. The students, of course, said the experience was like having an extra grandma.

After Hearts & Hand Day, PIN members realized that additional network members would be needed to enlarge that project or any other. However, members decided to grow slowly in order to preserve the group's budding cohesiveness. The rest of the first year was spent building PIN'S presence in Pekin: designing

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publicity pieces; planning a workshop for other service providers, civic organizations and business groups; and conducting a training session for teachers.

At the three-hour workshop for service providers, members were like anxious parents, eager to see if their joint efforts would fulfill the promise of interagency collaboration. If so, it would spread enthusiasm for collaboration to workshop participants. Relief radiated through members: not only did participants give the workshop good evaluations, but 12 additional agencies agreed to join forces in designing new intergenerational projects. The projects included: an activity day in the park for seniors and children; older adults and teen painting rooms in an outreach shelter; seniors and Girl Scouts sharing a variety of vintage and modern games; and elementary students publishing the results of their interviews with former Pekin high school athletes.

The workshop for teachers produced similar results, bringing elementary and high school teachers together for a better understanding of the aging process and its implications for school curricula. Walking with beans in their shoes, reading through Vaseline-smeared eye glasses and picking up objects with gloved hands gave teachers a better understanding of the physical challenges many seniors face daily. Suggestions followed for ways to give students a better understanding of the aging process within the current curriculum.

The grant year seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. As it ended, comments showed a change in perspective by members, "We can make a difference in our own agencies, but not as much as we can do together. I feel that we have really come together as a group and have great potential," said one. "We need to work together as funds dry up. Alone, none of our agencies has the money or energy to do it all." And summing it up, "When our group first met, all of our answers were really safe and institutional. Now I'm hearing answers that reflect not only our achievements as a coalition, but also the personal growth and satisfaction that membership in PIN has brought to all of us."

In the final analysis, the project's greatest strength was in the diversity of its member agencies and the sharing of expertise and resources that resulted from their collaboration. The structure imposed by written goals and objectives was also a strength in that it forced the coalition to target its energy to accomplish them.

A weakness inherent in the grant (as in any proposal submitted by one agency but involving others) is that the library shouldered more responsibility for its successful completion than partner agencies. However, once the library had guided PIN through its first year, it handed over the leadership role, for it would be in sharing responsibility that the coalition would become strong. We crossed our fingers that PIN could survive without grant funds and mandates.

Evaluate the Coalition's Progress

Now, three years later, PIN has grown from eight to 20 members. Monthly meetings continue. Hearts & Hands Day and a community workshop have become annual events. Answering a need verified at its 1997 annual workshop, PIN began Silent Saviors, a twice monthly support group for grandparents raising grandchildren. Beginning next year, an annual intergenerational award will be given by PIN to the individual who has done the most to further intergenerational efforts within the community.

Where have funds for PIN activities come from since the LSCA grant ended? As in Stone Soup, whenever there is a need it is met by in-kind contributions from members, by small grants or by donations from others. For example, PIN received a $500 grant from the Illinois Humanities Council to present "Generations," a series of intergenerational discussion programs. The city, park district and businesses donate leaf bags, cookies and rakes for each year's Hearts & Hands Day. Members donate time, photocopies and expertise. Recently, the network was awarded a $2,000 grant from the Illinois Department on Aging to help strengthen and support Silent Saviors. And PIN activities are publicized through each agency's newsletters and press releases.

Has it all been easy? Of course not! It was entailed a great deal of work, as do most projects of value, and challenges remain. As in any group, some PIN members are more active than others, and attendance at meetings rise and fall. It is a constant challenge to keep communication flowing between 20 agencies. It is occasionally difficult to reach consensus among individuals who are accustomed to being in charge within their individual agencies. Nevertheless, the effort dedicated to PIN has been returned to those involved many times over. Through PIN, the library and other members have established strong working relationships with a multitude of community agencies and enjoy easier access to the expertise of their professionals. One member says PIN has made it much easier for her agency to connect its resources to the people who need

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them. Intergenerational activities have multiplied. The director of an assisted-living facility, a new member recruited through PIN'S 1998 workshop, marvels at how many youth groups and teachers are asking to bring young people to interact with the residents. Members have gained new insight through participation in PIN activities. "Our association had always worked to help children, but now we have also come to appreciate the need of Pekin's older population," commented a business organization sponsor. Positive publicity has been received to the benefit of all members. In December, a newspaper feature article on the library's Share the Magic programs included a brief history of PIN and its services. Each member has become more familiar with the goals and resources of all the participating agencies, helping to avoid duplication of services within the community.

The future holds great promise for interagency collaboration in Pekin, and the Pekin Public Library takes pride in the part it has played in helping this collaboration happen. We encourage all libraries to try the coalition "recipe." As other community agencies add ingredients, a delicious feast will develop. And started by libraries, fancy that.

References

Brown, Marcia, Stone Soup, (New York: Atheneum, 1947).

Marcum, Deanna, "Redefining Community Through the Public Library." Daedalus, Vol. 125, No. 4, 1996, pages 191-205.

McCook, Kathleen de la Pena, "The Search for New Metaphors" Library Trends, Vol, 45, No.l, 1997, pages 117-129.

Statewide Statistical Analysis, 1996-1997, Illinois State Library, Produced by Library Research Center a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997.

Wood, Joan M., "Life Spectrum Programming: A Community Model Plan," Illinois Libraries Vol. 75, Fall 1993, pages 323-27.

Wood, Joan M., "Intergenerational Work Thrives at Pekin Public Library," Ohio Libraries Vol. 8, Fall 1995 pages 20-21.

Wood, Joan M., "Interagency Cooperation: Benefits of Intergenerational Programming," Journal of Youth Services in Libraries, Vol. 9, Spring 1996, pages 237-241.

Wood, Joan M., "Partners: The Library and Its Community: Library Guide to Interagecy/ Intergenerational Collaboration," Final grant report, submitted to the Illinois State Library, (Pekin: Pekin Public Library, 1996).

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