Collaborating for community impact project

What's it all about?:

The aim of the project is to contribute towards healthier, more vibrant communities, by increasing the impact of non-profit organizations in the Guelph-Wellington and Waterloo regions through collaboration.
Collaboration will be fostered through learning (research; discovery and documentation of best practices) and through developing business plans, ready for participating organizations to implement.
Collaboration opportunities will be investigated and planned for in three areas:
  1. Leadership and governance;
  2.  Back office and administrative functions; and
  3. Service delivery.

What's happening Now?:

We’ve developed a vision and mission for the collaborative, as well as detailed project plans. The research has been completed. This includes a literature search, key informant interviews, documentation of current collaboration efforts in the community, and a survey on priority collaboration needs. Our monitoring and evaluation plan will be developed and implemented soon.

 

How did it get started?:

Non-profit organizations in the area have always collaborated a great deal, especially with respect to service delivery. Over the past few years, a conversation has developed about making these ad hoc collaborations more intentional. A number of organizations committed to developing a project. This resulted in a Trillium grant for learning about collaboration and developing practical plans.
 
 

Who's Involved:

A group of about 40 organizations has been involved in ongoing discussions and various activities to foster collaboration. Of these, 18 organizations have formed a partnership, which has resulted in the Trillium grant. They will support the project throughout its life cycle, and have set up a Steering Committee to provide guidance.
The Volunteer Centre of Guelph-Wellington and Trellis Mental Health and Development Services are, jointly, signatories of the Trillium grant, and providing leadership to the project. A project manager manages the day-to-day work of the project. Research for the project is being conducted by the Research Shop at the University of Guelph. The project works closely with the Research Shop. And we expect that involvement will grow as the project develops!

 

What happens next?:

A web platform will be developed through which all documentation and lessons-learned will be available to participants, partners, and the community. Business plans will be developed which focus on collaboration opportunities identified in the research. A second symposium will be held in the spring of 2012 to share our experience and what we’ve learned with other community collaborators.
 
 
 
 

Contact Email

Website

Download summary
coracle@rogers.com http://www.worktogether.ca/cci

Documents from the September Symposium Event

 

Research Report

 

More Documents