2. Developing
The Community
2.2 Create Collaborative
Partnerships
An essential
element of mental health promotion is creating innovative
partnerships and enhancing community capacity. By participating
in collaborative projects, people become empowered and energized;
they quickly see that they are able to accomplish a great
deal more by joining forces than by working in isolation.
A variety
of different community organizations, associations and individuals
need to work together collaboratively in order to effectively
address issues that impact mental health, such as economic
development, housing, health care and education.
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"Collaborative
approaches to health promotion contribute to health
goals and community empowerment. In so doing, they offer
a glimpse of the connectedness that is part of the essence
of a good life."
Stephen Fawcett et al. 1996
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Why Should You
Create Collaborative Partnerships?
It makes
sense to try to bring as many different sectors of the community
on board for several reasons:
- your
initiative will be more representative of the whole community;
- your
group will stand to gain broader community support;
- the
contacts and connections made in a diverse, multi-sector
group will lead to new community relationships, which can
spark new initiatives that might never have otherwise existed
in the community.
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The
Inclusion in Community project was designed so that
partnerships in the sites were developed among consumer/survivors,
families, CMHA staff, and community partners. One important
purpose of the partnerships was to engage those groups
not normally involved in mental health issues to be
more proactive in involving and welcoming those with
mental health problems.
In
the Cornwall site of the Inclusion project, partnerships
were developed with service clubs such as the Navy Veterans,
and other community agencies, such as a local literacy
project. These partnerships connected consumer/survivors
to the broader community by opening up the world of
volunteer work to them.
In
addition to learning from the experiences of other consumers,
Ottawa participants also reached out to non-mental health
specific organizations such as local colleges. Each
group wanted to let people know of their supports and
services but each faced the same problem - limited resources.
Inclusion was the key to bringing these groups together
to do collectively what they could not do separately.
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All three
of the sample projects used collaborative partnerships as
a means to improve the mental health of people in communities.
In each site participants understood that the formation of
new and innovative community partnerships was a key part of
the overall mental health promotion strategy, and one that
would help to ensure that the initiative would take root in
the community.
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Who Needs To Be
Involved?
Collaborative
partnerships should be as inclusive as possible, bringing
together people from all parts of the community (schools,
businesses, government., etc.) and from different levels (neighbourhood,
municipal, provincial).
Partnerships
should also include representatives from the various ethnocultural
groups that live in the community. A community partnership
to promote mental health might include representatives from:
- the
media;
- the
business community;
- area
schools;
- seniors,
youth and cultural organizations;
- local
government;
- health
organizations;
- the
faith community;
- financial
institutions.
People
from each of these areas will be able to promote mental health
in important, unique ways.
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How Do You Create
Collaborative Partnerships?
Go for it!
Private
citizens have initiated many of the most successful cases
of broad-based collaboration. They usually start with a
small group of people with the credibility to convince others
that something can and must be done.
The
members of the "initiating committee" are broadly
representative of the community, and often begin by gathering
information on the issue and identifying the stakeholders.
Engage your
stakeholders
As your
understanding of the issue grows, so will your understanding
of who needs to be involved. Who is responsible for the
problem or issue? Who is affected by it? Whose perspectives
or knowledge are needed to develop good solutions or strategies?
When
you have identified your stakeholders, the next stage is
to bring them together by inviting a key representative
of each group to a public meeting or information session.
Spend time learning
about each other
Before
jumping in to any attempts to collaborate on the issue,
it’s important to devote some time and energy to learning
about each other. Take the time to discuss interests, to
appreciate the points of view and values that are common
to the members of the group, and to share hopes and fears.
Building
a collaborative climate and sustaining it through the many
challenging and even frustrating moments that lie ahead
demands a solid foundation of trust.
Build agreement
among stakeholders
Differing
perspectives enhance the wisdom brought to the problem-solving
efforts and the possibilities for real change.
Focus
first on building agreement that the problem exists and
on getting enough stakeholders to work together to change
the situation. When you’ve established that agreement, you
can move on to defining the problem and creating strategies
to take action on the problem.
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"Communities
are never built from the top down, or from the outside
in."
- John Kretzmon & John McKnight 1994
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