Through collaborations, close relationships were made with local businesses and local government. For example, the village clerk served on the original MIRA team and is now a member of the Birchwood school district's Long Range Planning Team.
These close relationships have also helped the team in obtaining two state grants to create cross-generational mentoring programs. They have also accessed other local funds.
At least three spin-off projects have developed since the original MIRA project. The first project involved community asset-mapping where students and adults developed a list of all district residents, created a phone asset map survey, and then conducted phone surveys to complete the asset-mapping project. The purpose of these surveys is to create a comprehensive picture of the community's demographic profile.
A second spin-off project has been the initiation of a 44-member Long Range Planning Team made up mostly of Birchwood community members. Finding volunteers has been no problem thanks to the improved community communications resulting from the original MIRA project.
A third spin-off benefit has been increased participation of community members as school volunteers in different mentoring programs.
