Improving Services: Developing Multisector Collaborations
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WHAT IS MULTISECTOR COLLABORATION?
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IS YOUR COMMUNITY READY FOR MULTISECTOR COLLABORATION?
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WHAT ARE THE FIRST STEPS YOU SHOULD TAKE IN BUILDING A MULTISECTOR COLLABORATIVE?
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HOW DO YOU CONTINUE TO BUILD AND OPERATE A MULTISECTOR COLLABORATIVE?
Can ordinary community people solve big problems?
Do you ever feel like the world is falling apart? Does it seem as though our problems are so big and overwhelming that we won't be able to solve them? Does it seem like many people who are trying to solve the same problem are working against each other, rather than with each other? Does it seem like the "experts" have failed?
If you feel that way, take heart. Although it's true that the modern day problems our communities face are more complex than they were a generation ago, many ordinary people, just like you, are figuring out new ways to solve them.
Frustrated by going it alone or working at cross-purposes, people in many regions and in different kinds of communities are learning how to sit down with their friends, opponents, and strangers alike to work out the complex problems that are common to us all.
People are realizing that they can't wait for the "experts" to come up with the solutions. Community people are developing their own organizations and expertise. They are often taking the lead with government institutions, businesses, and non -profit organizations to do what will benefit the whole community, not just one powerful interest group.
One of the tools that community people are using to solve these "big" problems is multisector collaboration, which is the focus of this section.
But before we go further, remember--even though the term "multisector collaboration" sounds like a fancy term, it is just a tool that ordinary people use to get things done. You can learn about how to make it work for you!
WHAT IS MULTISECTOR COLLABORATION?
A multisector collaboration is the partnership that results when government, non-profit, private, and public organizations, community groups, and individual community members come together to solve problems that affect the whole community.
In other words multisector collaboration can solve "systemic" problems.
What are "systemic" problems? They involve a community's "systems" rather than one isolated area. They might include a failing educational or health care system, community-wide economic problems, environmental problems, or a number of interrelated problems. When solving a systemic problem, you can't cure one leaf without treating the whole tree.
Multisector collaborations have the capacity to solve systemic problems, because they draw on the resources of all the sectors: business, government, and nonprofit. They can wield more power than one organization or even a group of similar organizations.
Example: Baltimore multisector collaborative
The Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD), an African American grass-roots organization, approached the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), the town's primary business organization, to establish a partnership. The purpose of the partnership was to solve problems that impacted the entire community, such as high unemployment, a failing educational system, and an unskilled workforce.
BUILD could see some links between the needs of their own constituents and the needs of the business community. The GBC also recognized those links. Together the two groups had enough influence to pressure a reluctant city government to improve its ineffective educational system.
Eventually this partnership expanded to include the mayor's office, several government organizations, and the city public schools. Together their collaborative developed programs and incentives to keep students in school and prepare them to be skilled workers. The collaborative met BUILD's need for improved education for its community members, including better prospects for employment for them; while GBC met its needs for a skilled workforce.
As illustrated above, comprehensive problems require comprehensive solutions. For systemic problems, the Band-Aid approach doesn't work. Complex and intertwined problems like these require cooperation throughout a community in order to make significant changes. No one person, no one organization – not even one sector can make significant movement without the help and cooperation of everyone that is involved in or affected by the issue.
In fact, multisector collaboration often occurs after one organization or one sector has tried to solve problems by itself, and has failed because other interest groups were working against it or were not lending it necessary help needed to do the job.
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