Success Story Lutherwood, Waterloo

“Our organization has invested heavily in partnerships as a method of building capacity.  As an example, we have formed a partnership of the local College and another non-profit to provide services to companies closing or downsizing.  Rather than competing with each other for contracts, that each of us would not have the capacity to serve individually, we have developed a collaborative approach that has shared our resources, profiled our services and created a win-win.”

In another example, we combined our knowledge of self-employment with another local agency that focuses on the needs of New Canadians.  Combining our technical knowledge with the organization’s knowledge of their client group, we developed a successful program model to support New Canadians in running a small business.  While each could have developed the program separately, our individual knowledge bases would not have allowed for the range of programming.  Combining our areas of expertise resulted in a very successful program and multiple partnerships that have emerged from this relationship.”

Food For Thought

If you have a bigger Board, is everyone really engaged?  Is it better to have a smaller Board of all fully-engaged people, or a bigger Board that may be more representative of the community, but in which not all are contributing?

Notes from the Field

“We often start with concept papers and distribute draft ideas before we invest a lot of time into program development.  It provides a good option to explore interest without taxing resources.”

Lutherwood, Waterloo

Project PartnersONESTEP OAYEC ACTEW
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