|
Edmonton, Alberta
At first glance, it might not be obvious what community organizations which are experiencing success might gain by changing their ways of working together. Take Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area and Boys and Girls Clubs of Edmonton, for instance. Both are strong, well-established, respected community organizations. Both operate a range of services from multiple sites. Both have a history of effectively serving the needs of Edmonton’s young people. Both are leaders in their fields. Could anything more possibly be gained by formally partnering together?
“Big Brothers Big Sisters and Boys and Girls Clubs [in Edmonton] have actually worked together for many years,” reports Liz O’Neill, Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area. “There has been a lot of trust between the two organizations as we have turned to each other to inform our practice … but we had not worked on a project that we owned together.”
However, in 2000 the two agencies banded closer together when the regional Child and Family Services Authority decided to stop funding all mentoring programs in the region. Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs and a third organization all had mentoring programs that would be threatened as a result. So the three agencies got together and developed a “counterproposal”. The groups offered to consolidate all their mentoring programs within the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization, in exchange for continued, but significantly reduced, funding. The determined and dedicated alliance made such a compelling case that the government agreed to the plan.
This collaborative effort built a much stronger relationship between Big Brothers Big Sisters and Boys and Girls Clubs. It also encouraged the two agencies to more intentionally and proactively seek ways of partnering around one another’s areas of expertise. “With this initial partnership, we were working on something where we really had to share the success or failures that accompanied it. I think this gave us a stronger sense to look for opportunities to work together,” recalls Liz.
It was not long before just such an opportunity arose. In the spring of 2002 the City of Edmonton’s Family and Community Support Services (a municipal funder and service provider) approached Boys and Girls Clubs to take over some preventive services that it had been delivering for six years. “The Boys and Girls Clubs identified that they could do this work in a better way for children if they brought in Big Brothers Big Sisters to partner with them,” reports Liz. The City of Edmonton approved the innovative partnership and the two agencies began working together on this program in January 2003.
In undertaking the new joint program, the two Edmonton organizations found inspiration in a pilot project between Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. This project was called “Up 2 Us”, and was funded by The Pillsbury Company. It examined how Big Brothers Big Sisters and Boys and Girls Clubs agencies in the U.S. might work more closely to better serve young people. Five American communities piloted Up 2 Us projects, in which Big Brothers Big Sisters provided trained mentors, and Boys and Girls Clubs provided safe places for mentors and mentees to meet. This approach allowed more youth to be matched with mentors, and more positive role models to be brought into the clubs.
The Edmonton agencies aimed to tailor this approach to fit their community, and duplicate the successful results. “We stole the name ‘Up 2 Us’ from the American project. The name means that its ‘up to us’ to figure out how to better serve kids,” explains Liz.
Pam Christensen, Executive Director of Boys and Girls Clubs of Edmonton, describes how the joint project works, “Boys and Girls Clubs has three sites on the South end of the city, and in them runs a wide range of activities available in any of the [Edmonton] clubs … Then Big Brothers Big Sisters comes in and provides the mentoring component at the [three South Edmonton] sites. They’ll also recruit volunteers to do group activities at the sites. Boys and Girls Clubs provides group services to Big Brothers Big Sisters kids on the wait list in that area.”
Pam notes that one of the unexpected benefits of working together in this way was the discovery of unmet needs among families in the area this project serves, and the development of programs to address these needs. For instance, Boys and Girls Clubs has started offering a “Parent Talk Program” - a facilitated group for parents to talk about the challenges of raising their children - as result of a need identified through the Up 2 Us project. Similarly, the project staff identified that schools in this geographic area were not involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters’ In School Mentoring Program, although many children in the district could benefit from that service. Consequently, the two agencies are now working jointly to expand the reach of In School Mentoring into area schools.
On the surface, the administrative arrangements of this joint project seem straightforward. The City of Edmonton’s Family and Community Support Services provides funding to Boys and Girls Clubs as the fiscal agent for the project. Boys and Girls Clubs, in turn, compensates Big Brothers Big Sisters a set amount to deliver the mentoring piece of the project.
“The children are ‘owned’ by Boys and Girls Clubs. The volunteers are ‘owned’ by Big Brothers Big Sisters,” Liz says to clarify accountabilities. The program staff are the employees of Boys and Girls Club, and a Big Brothers Big Sisters staff also works out of each site. Regardless of which organization issues their paychecks, though, the staff take a team approach, working for the collective. They characterize the approach as being very family and child focused: the staff work together with the family and child to determine their needs, and then decide which tools from each organization’s toolkit will best serve those needs.
Although this approach to administering and delivering the service seems clear-cut, the agencies have encountered complications as they have put the model into practice.
Pam and Liz pose these questions, for example, “How do you empower staff to make decisions in the field without waiting for each organization’s supervision or management to do that? … Is this a Big Brothers Big Sisters question or a Boys and Girls Clubs question? … How do you figure out what policies Big Brothers Big Sisters has versus what Boys and Girls Clubs has, and where their policies overlap in a given situation? … Who owns responsibility for what piece of the risk? When is it Big Brothers Big Sisters’ responsibility, when is it Boys and Girls Clubs’ responsibility, when is it a joint responsibility, and who will insure a joint responsibility? … How can you keep good staff and avoid the turnover that ends up affecting both organizations and ultimately the families and children?”
Staff of the two organizations strive to communicate continuously in order to work through these and other issues as they arise. The agencies are also looking at creating a new “governance model” involving the Executive Directors and Managers of Service Delivery so that issues are addressed not only at a practice level, but at a strategic level as well.
Despite the practical and strategic complexities that have arisen, both agencies are sold on the strengths of their approach to working together. They have made real the ideal of a comprehensive, seamless continuum of services for children, youth and families. They have built a strong network of professional support. They have capitalized on the expertise of each organization in dealing both with project-related issues as well as broader community issues. And ultimately, they have more effectively met the needs of those they serve.
The success of the Up 2 Us project has been so great that it has caused the organizations to look for opportunities to create additional synergies by working together in other areas and at other levels. For instance, they are looking at how they might more formally move the partnership beyond collaboration at the service delivery level, to joint recruitment and marketing for the project. They’ve even thought of hiring a joint grants officer, not just for this project, but also for both organizations as a whole. “It’s important to challenge our staff to … look for new opportunities to partner … to see things in a different light … to think of different ways of delivering the traditional service,” emphasizes Pam.
Liz adds that it has been important for their organizations to take the time to reflect on the accomplishments of the collaboration. “We often don’t have time to stop and think about the goodness that comes from working together … We need to take the time to have conversations that reflect on the good that comes from the collaboration.”
And what is the conclusion of these reflections? Liz sums it up simply, “This was a good thing to do.”
|