Our research team is collaborating with Special Olympics International on a study to learn more about how coaches learn to coach. To do so, we are engaging in a participatory approach, which values responding to community members’ needs (sport administrators and coaches) in order to produce research findings that are useful, useable, and used. Engaging in participatory ways can be challenging if we’re not paying attention to the different values, priorities, and expectations that partners may have. Our blog offers a story of how our partnership is working together to create a positive partnership experience, through paying attention to how we involve community partners in the decision-making process, fostering open and honest communication, valuing diverse forms of knowledge and expertise, establishing mutual benefits, and positioning our research findings for practical use in informing and improving Special Olympics coach development settings.