A few weeks ago, what seemed like most of the local voluntary sector, and more than a few others, turned up at a conference with the fancy title Collaboration for Social Change. All those buzz words in one title.
There was a Minister, a Chair of an Assembly committee, academics, practitioners and someone from the telly. And me.
The first question was asked to the room- what do you want social change to be? No dozing off here- we had to do thinking before the event had hardly started. The range of responses was quite revealing, and showed the range of starting points in the room: jobs, supportive parents, economy, draw a line in the sand rather than stick heads in the sand, politics for people, respect.
It was noted that 22% of the NI population live in poverty. 22%. Now that would be a place to start. Can we seriously address other inequalities without addressing that?
One of the interesting things about the half day event was the fear in the room. Many of the voluntary organisations were seeing collaboration as something being pushed on them as a cost cutting method. For those, collaboration was a threat to their wellbeing and ability to pay the mortgage. I realised that, as a volunteer for an organisation that hasn’t got any money yet, I was in quite an unusual position. Collaboration is how the Rare Disease partnership works. It’s the only way we’ve been able to do anything. We’re finishing off our strategic plan and will be looking for funding, but collaboration is central to our work; opportunity rather than threat. (That may be old fashioned now, but I’ve been out of the work loop for years, excuse any outmoded language.)
While officialdom talked about targetted funding and tangible outcomes, the academic and practitioners talked about people. Organisations don’t work together- people do. It’s necessary to devote time and energy to relationship building. There’s no point in leaders being all for collaboration if staff and others don’t understand the value, or trust the process. Partnerships just don’t happen. Respect, trust, open communication and shared understanding are vital to the success of any partnership, but have to be worked on.
Get on, create ways of working together, make progress.
Never mind the buzz words, or the TV man, or the Minister; that’s just life.
me, mine, and other bits 
Collaboration is going to be the only way to get things done in the coming years. It is good that your group has that solid foundation for your much-needed work.
Wow – as always straight to the essence. People DO …in your organization or family or whatever space you happen to be in. Here, we are in a week before an election… words everywhere… there was an old Emily Pankhurst slogan “Deeds not Words” so I hope you keep on doing your blogs and your collaborating with others for the RD partnership. Good name there… words can matter too when they describe a truthful sort of DO. And keep up your health… you and your doing matter.
Collaboration should come naturally to us, but alas so many have forgotten how. Keep up the good work and remember to rest in between times.
You might be interested in the Better World Handbook:
http://nrhatch.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/the-better-world-handbook/
It addresses changes that will make a big difference in creating the 7 foundations for a Better World:
•Economic Fairness
•Comprehensive Peace
•Ecological Sustainability
•Deep Democracy
•Social Justice
•Culture of Simplicity
•Revitalized Community
Keep up the good fight!
i sat for a fortnight on a neurosurgery forum and posted 7 different appeals for info…..NONE!
Sp definitely much needed xx
You have such an important voice in the forum bringing attention to NI. I hope you are able to stay connected to individuals and organizations committed to making change. So often people have good ideals but forget that the intention is to actually realize a difference. I am very delighted that you are a part of any cooperative effort. I know you care about results!