Tool 1 Partner Finder

Communities are not just groups of people that stay in the same area, they can also be groups with a common interest like a school or workplace or people that live elsewhere but have an interest in the area like business owners, organisations or government departments.

Defining your community helps you to decide who should be involved or can contribute to your natural playground Needs Assessment with manpower, resources, perspectives, experience, expertise, and insights.

You can use the Partner Finder at the start of a project to help you define who the stakeholders are in your community.

• Individuals
• Groups or teams
• Workshop facilitators

Work individually or as a group to come up with as many names as possible to complete each column. The more people that contribute to the worksheet, the more ideas you will have. Remember that there are no right or wrong answers, just come up with as many ideas as possible. When you plan, you can decide who to use or not to use. The next step after you’ve completed the Partner Finder tool is to appoint someone to get the contact details for each of the people you listed.

If you prefer, you can download the worksheet and print it out.