Momentum is the force gained by the development of events. This gained forced will eventually help propel your initiative forward. Building momentum for your initiative is necessary to keep your partners engaged and energized throughout the process.

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Select a section:

• Adapting to Change
• Preserving Energy and Enthusiasm
• Maintaining Partnerships
• Sustaining Your Partnership’s Initiative
• Honoring Your Partnership
• Institutionalizing Your Efforts

Creating change through interventions in your community will likely require long-term commitment and the use of several approaches. By using a variety of approaches, community partnerships allow their individual members to become involved in ways that work for them. In addition, by mixing and phasing in various approaches, you can keep different partners engaged and energized at different times.

Your partnership should consider flexibility as one of the most important characteristics of its process. A willingness to adapt to change (e.g., to abandon strategies that don’t work and to try new strategies that are unconventional) will help your group to sustain its work over time and ultimately accomplish its goals.

To maintain momentum, your partnership will need to be responsive to changes in community conditions and to changes in the needs of community members. This responsiveness may involve changes in the arrangement and focus of the partnership. Keep in mind that making these changes may be challenging. Long-time members may feel as if their concerns are being minimized as the partnership incorporates new perspectives.

To keep from losing valuable partners during periods of transition, try these approaches:

• Make special efforts to convince partners of both the importance of modifying the group’s focus and their continued value to the group rather than allow them to feel as if they are being replaced.
• Create subcommittees through which some members of your group can engage in new ventures while others continue to carry out on-going activities.
• Focus on building and maintaining relationships during group meetings. This is particularly important as new members join the group.