A Model for Collaborative Partnership: Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Local School System Support Financial Education Mandates

Extension professionals partner with other community agencies to meet common educational goals. Utilization of a collaborative model can aid in the organization of a collaborative effort. This paper highlights Rubin’s (2009) “collaboration’s life cycle”. This model contains 14 detailed, non-sequential, steps that are grouped into 5 phases. These phases include the launch of a collaborative effort, developing human resources and the knowledge base, building administrative structures and systems, and building a culture of collaboration, and accountability, sustainability, and renewal. Through a case study, this paper discusses how the “collaboration’s life cycle” fits a new partnership between Cooperative Extension and two Virginia high schools working towards the common goal of improving financial literacy in teens. In this collaboration, two Reality Store “real world” financial simulations were planned and implemented for students enrolled in the Economics and Personal Finance course at their high schools.