the power of collaborative solutions

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The Power of Collaborative Solutions

Tom Wolff

February 15, 2012

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The Power of Collaborative

Solutions

• Building Effective Coalitions

• Nonprofit Webinars

• February 2012

• Tom Wolff Ph.D.

• Tom Wolff & Associates

• 24 S. Prospect St.

• Amherst, MA. 01002

• 413 253 2646

• tom@tomwolff.com

Stand and Declare

•What do we

believe about

collaboration?

Stand and Declare

• Collaboration with representatives from all parts of the community

is fun and easy.

Strong agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

• In collaborative efforts in our

community we always engage

those most affected by the

problem as equal partners and

they willingly join us and

participate actively.Strong agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

What are collaborative solutions?

• Doing together that which we cannot do alone

• A collaboration is a group of individuals and/or

organizations with a common interest who

agree to work together toward a common goal.

» From S.Fawcett et.al

Why collaborative solutions have

been encouraged?

• To create social change

• To encourage social innovation

• Expand interventions to the whole community

• To do more with less when there are budget cuts

• To address limitations of the health and human

service systems

• To promote civic engagement

• To build healthy communities

Concerns with Health and Human Service System

• Fragmentation

• Duplication of effort

• Focus on deficits

• Crisis Orientation

• Failure to respond to diversity

• Excessive professionalism

• Detached from community & clients

• Competition

• Limited and inaccessible information

• Failure to engage those most directly affected

Experiences in Coalitions and Partnerships

• Please describe two partnerships or coalition experiences that

you have had that have been positive and two that have been

negative.

Positive Experiences Negative Experiences

Why? Learnings? Why? Learnings?

Collaborative Solutions

1. Engage a broad spectrum of the

community

– Especially those most directly affected

– Celebrate racial and cultural diversity

2. Encourage true collaboration as the

form of exchange

The Continuum of Collaboration

Definitions:

• Networking Exchanging informationfor mutual benefit.

• Coordination Exchanging information and modifying activities for mutual benefit.

• Cooperation Exchanging information, modifying activities, and sharing resourcesfor mutual benefit and to achieve a common purpose.

The Continuum of Collaboration-

cont.

• Collaboration Exchanging information,

modifying activities, sharing resources,

and enhancing the capacity of another for

mutual benefit and to achieve a common

purpose by sharing risks, resources,

responsibilities, and rewards.

– From Arthur Himmelman

The Continuum of Collaboration Worksheet

•Instructions: Given the definitions of networking, coordinating, cooperating and collaborating, identify the following:

• With an “x” identify which functions are most frequently used in your collaborative efforts

• Discuss how you might like to change this “mix”

• With an “o” identify where you would like to be (which functions you would like to use more frequently, etc.)

• Discuss and note what your collaborative needs to do to make this happen

• Use Frequently Use Sometimes Hardly Ever Use

• Networking _____________ _____________ _____________

• Exchanging Information

• Coordination _____________ _____________ _____________

• Exchange Information

• Alter Activities

• Cooperation _____________ _____________ _____________

• Exchange Information

• Alter Activities

• Share Resources

• Collaboration _____________ _____________ _____________

• Exchange Information

• Alter Activities

• Share Resources

• Enhance Capacity

Collaborative Solutions cont.

3. Practice democracy

– Promote active citizenship and

empowerment

4. Employ an ecological approach that

emphasizes individual in his/her

setting.

– Build on community strengths and assets

Neighborhood Needs Map

Domestic

Violence

Alcoholism

AIDS

Dropouts

Abandonment

Homelessness

Child Abuse

Pollution

Rat BitesDrug

Abuse

Welfare Dependency

Boarded-up Buildings

Unemployment

Gangs

Illiteracy

Lead Poisoning

Mental

Illness

Teenage

Pregnancy

Broken

families

T

r

u

a

n

c

y

Crime

Slum Housing

Slu

m H

ou

sin

g

Neighborhood Assets Map

Capital

Improvement

Expenditures

Police

Vacant Bldgs., Land, etc.

Social

Service

Agencies

Welfare Expenditures

Energy/Waste Resources

Home-Based Enterprise

Gifts of

Labeled

People

ParksPersonal

Income

Associations of Business

Citizens Associations

Religious Organizations

Individual

BusinessesIndividual

Capacities

Cultural

Organizations

Fire

Depts.

Public

Schools

Higher

Education

Institutions

Hospitals

Libraries

Public Information

Pu

blic In

form

ati

on

Primary Building Blocks: Assets and capacities

located inside the neighborhood, largely under

neighborhood control

Secondary Building Blocks: Assets located

within the community, but largely controlled by

outsiders.

Potential Building Blocks: Resources originating

outside the neighborhood, controlled by outsiders.

From John McKnight

Types of community assessment

questions

• Traditional:

• What are your needs?

• How can we (providers) meet those

needs?

• Asset-based assessment questions:

• What are your community’s strengths?

• How can you contribute to helping us find

a solution?

Collaborative solutions cont.

5. Take action

– Address issues of social change and power

– Move from social services to social change

– Build on a common vision

6. Engage your spirituality as your compass for

social change

Align the goal and the process

– ―Be the change that you wish to create in the

world.‖ (M. Gandhi)

Four spiritual principles that are

critical to community building

• Appreciation

• Acceptance

• Compassion

• Interdependence

Interdependence

• The community is a complex whole

• Take an ecological view of individual in

their community settings

• Focus on the full range of social

determinants of health

• All systems/settings have an impact and

they all interact with each other

Story of the

Cleghorn Neighborhood Center

CNC Story

• Moving from social service to social

change

• Start with door-to-door visits

• Build leadership with adults and youth

• Take action - advocacy

• Build community

• CNC as an illustration of the six principles

Unique characteristic of

community collaborations

• Holistic and comprehensive

• Flexible and responsive

• Build a sense of community

• Build and enhance resident engagement in community life

• Provide a vehicle for community empowerment

• Allow diversity to be valued as foundation of the wholeness of the community

• Incubators for innovative solutions to community problems

Factors Affecting a Collaboration’s

Capacity to Create Change

• Having a clear vision and mission

• Action planning for community and systems change

• Developing and supporting leadership

• Documentation and ongoing feedback on programs

• Technical assistance and support

• Securing financial resources for the work

• Making outcomes matter– From Roussus and Fawcett

Working with Conflict in Collaborations

• Conflict is inherent in Collaborations

• It is useful to recognize different types of conflict and conflict behavior:

Power, Accountability, Unity & diversity, Mixed loyalties, Division of labor, Interpersonal conflict

• Expression and negotiation of conflicts is healthy coalition behavior. It leads to better results.

• Use a variety of approaches to prevent, minimize and resolve conflicts

From Beth Rosenthal in Wolff and Kaye From the Ground Up

Barriers – What are your biggest

concerns?• Turf and Competition

• Bad history

• Failure to Act

• Lack of a Common Vision

• Failure to provide and create collaborative leadership

• Minimal organizational structure

• Costs outweigh the benefits

• Not engaging self-interest

• Overcoalitioned community

Agency-Based and Community-Based

Approaches

Issues Agency-Based Community-Based

• Approach Weakness/Deficit Strength/Asset

• Definition of

Problem

By Agencies,

Government

By Local

Community

• Role of

Professional

Central to Decision

Making

Resource to

Community

Problem Solving

Agency-Based and Community-Based

Approaches

Issues Agency-Based Community-Based

• Primary decision

makers

Agencies,

Gov’t

Community

• Potential for Community

Ownership

Low Hi

• Community’s

Control of Resources

Low Hi

Outreach questions

• Strengths and Gaps in your present

membership

• Who is missing? Who else do we need

to have in the room?

• Who else in the community cares about

your issue?

• Who might you engage?

THE FORMAL SECTORS

THE INFORMAL SECTORS

Degrees of Involvement – Ladder

of Participation

Community initiated – shared decision making with agencies

Community initiated and directed– agencies support

Agency initiated – shared decision making

Consulted and informed

Assigned roles

Tokenism

Decoration

Manipulation

Benefits of Involving Grassroots

Organizations and Leaders

1. Can reach ―high risk‖ and ―hard to reach‖

populations

2 Work with ―formal‖ and informal‖ leaders

3 Know what works in their communities

4. Community organizations are community

archivists(continued....)

Benefits of Involving Grassroots

Organizations and Leaders (continued)

5. Promote ownership and participation

6. They are the best architects of solutions

7. Build local leadership

8. Create positive ―norms‖ in the community

9. Promote community ownership

Stakeholder Analysis

• Capacities, skills, resources?

• Potential role?

• Self interest? Why should they join?

• How will you recruit?

• Barriers to recruiting?

• Who?

• When?

•The main reason

someone volunteers is

that someone they

know asks them!

Retention _ The 6 R’s of

Participation

• Recognition

• Respect

• Role

• Relationship

• Reward

• Results

REACH 2010 BostonRacial and Ethnic Approaches to Community

Health

Boston Blueprint for Action

• Health Care and Public Health– Health Insurance.

– Data Collection

– Patient education

– Health Systems –

– Cultural Competence-.

– Public Health Programs

– Research Needs

• Environment and Societal Factors– Neighborhood investment –

– Jobs and economic security –.

– Public awareness –.

– Promotion of key community institutions –

About the REACH Coalition

Mission—What is our work?

The mission of the Boston REACH Coalition is to promote health equity and eliminate racial and ethnic health inequities in Boston.

the Boston REACH Coalition

• Initially focused on breast and cervical

cancer in Black women in Boston

• Now taking a broader SDOH approach

A Health Equity Framework

Racism

Transportation

Food Access

SocioeconomicStatus

Environmental Exposure

Health Behaviors

Access to Health Services

Housing

Public Safety

Health Outcomes

Employment

Social Capital

Education

Jamaica Plain Youth Health Equity

Coalition

• Why focus on youth

– We’re doing it

already!

– Youth issues =

community issues

= family issues

– Narrows the

focus (but not

much)

Jamaica Plain Youth Health Equity

Collaborative - Goals• Involve

residents,

organizations

and youth

• Examine health

disparities

• Identify causes

including social

determinants

• Common

language and

framework

• Define and

implement

programs

Bucket Meetings

• Case Study

• Employment inequities for low income African American/Latino youth – role of institutional racism

• Employment Health impacts for low income African American/Latino youth

• Possible Action Steps/Strategies

Youth Retreat August 2009

Undoing Racism Activity

Current Focus:

Youth Employment

• Job Development

• Communications

• Job Training

Youth Report 2009

March and Rally February 2010

Skills for Collaborative

Leadership

• Be inclusive, promote diversity

• Practice shared decision making

• Resolve conflicts constructively

• Communicate clearly, openly, and

honestly

• Facilitate group interaction

• Nurture leadership in others and

encourage top-level commitment

Attributes of Successful

Collaborative Leaders

• Ability to share power

• Flexibility

• Ability to see the big picture

• Trustworthiness

• Patience

• Abundant energy and hope

Do’s and Don’ts of Collaborative

Leadership

• DO remember to delegate

• DON’T try to juggle too many balls

• DON’T take it personally

• DO maintain an action orientation

• DON’T hog the spotlight

• DON’T avoid conflict

• DON’T forget to celebrate the small victories

Myths of Sustainability

• Sustainability is best thought about in the waning months of your funding

• Everything we do must be sustained

• It is all about finding the money

• Communities have the money to fund and sustain all pilot projects that show themselves to be effective and of value to the community

Four Approaches to

Sustainability

• Institutionalization of changes

• Policy change

• Finding resources to sustain the effort

• Community ownership/capacity building

• www.gjcpp.org

Sustainability Tool

• Global Journal of Community Psychology

Practice

• www.gjcpp.org

• Jan 2010 Issue:

• http://www.gjcpp.org/pdfs/2009-0017-

Final%20Version-011410.pdf

―Be optimistic, it feels better.‖

Dalai Lama

New February 2010 from Jossey

Bass/John Wiley- available at

www.tomwolff.com

Web Resources

• Community Tool Box

• http://ctb.ku.edu

• Tom Wolff & Associates

• www.tomwolff.com

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