Office of Planning, Environment, & Realty (HEP)
What are Partnerships and what is Leveraging?
Partnerships are strategic agreements between two agencies to work together to accomplish a common goal.Leveraging is the strategic use of a partnership’s combined resources to achieve a desired outcome, such as pooling funds to build a project.
Who would benefit from this module? Anyone involved in tribal transportation planning.
How will I benefit? You will learn the principles and steps in partnering and leveraging.
I. Introduction. Topic description. Practice While You Learn!
II. What are Partnerships and what is Leveraging?Overview.
III. Steps in Partnering and Leveraging. Four basic steps.
IV. From Indian County. Tribal partnership examples.
V: Toolbox and Checklist. Key points.
Appendix. Readings, MOA example, Practice While You Learn! answer.
Why are Partnerships and Leveraging important?The challenge in tribal transportation planning is to allocate limited resources across a broad field of needs. If done well, development of a partnership and leveraging its resources will enable tribes to do more with less.
How does this module relate to other modules in the training series? This topic is closely aligned to six other modules:
What can I expect from this module?
Partnerships and leveraging are defined and their basic steps and benefits are explained.Examples of successful tribal partnerships are presented.A toolbox of key points and a convenient checklist are also available in this module along with Practice While You Learn! in Figure 2. Here, a hypothetical partnership and leveraging problem is presented. As you read through and study this module, consider ways to solve the problem. The appendix contains a reading list and one possible answer to Practice While You Learn!
Partnerships and Leveraging
This project is referenced throughout the module to help you “Practice While You Learn” in the development of partnerships and leveraging.
Spur Roads – SR103 Project
It would be ideal if the rutted spur roads on the west side of the reservation were back in service. Years ago they were alive with trucks carrying harvested timber to market via State Route 103 (SR103) at three access points. Today the roads are seldom used.
The policy of the tribe’s Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) is to upgrade the spur roads to serve new tribal retail and housing. When asked for an estimate to upgrade the roads into a modern collector system, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) estimates $800,000. This far exceeds the tribe’s annual IRR allocation of $300,000. According to theBIA Regional Office, a one-time allocation of $250,000 in IRR construction funds is available to rebuild the roads.
According to State and Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) transportation plans, SR103 is a recreational corridor that, in the near future, will be upgraded to better accommodate auto, bus, bicycle and walking services. It connects to the reservation at the three spur road locations.
Next week, you will attend the monthly MPO Advisory Committee meeting which includes State Department of Transportation (DOT), MPO and transit authority representatives. You have served on the committee for five years. You also have a meeting next week with the tribal Planning Director. She wants to pursue the IRR construction funds but is concerned that they cover less than half of the funds needed to upgrade the spur roads.
Is it possible to:
- Coordinate the tribe’s Spur Roads project with the SR103 project?
- Partner with the State DOT and MPO on these two projects?
- Leverage IRR Construction funds ($250,000) with State and MPO funds ($550,000)?
How would this work? What steps should you take to find out?
The purpose of Practice While You Learn! is to apply your learning to a hypothetical problem as you study the contents of this module. You will find useful information and tools in your reading. At certain points, you will be asked if the lesson you have just learned will help solve the problem described here.
One possible answer to this problem set is also provided in Appendix C.