We have had a very successful consortium of agencies that deliver programs for the mature worker working together since before 2000. We have formed a sub-committee of the local training board, have held a conference and planning another, have produced materials together and regularly collaborate on issues etc. We also consult on funding barriers, problems, etc.”
“Job Skills had been funded to deliver a Youth Entrepreneurship program in southern York Region but did not have an office location in that area at the time. An agreement was made with COSTI (Markham) to utilize their space, resource area for participants, training room and some program support services. The program ran in the evenings when COSTI did not utilize the training space and costs for the services and space were pre-determined. Billing was set up between the two organizations on a pre-agreed schedule. Job Skills benefited by being able to offer a program in an area where they were not currently providing service. COSTI benefited by hosting a program in their space that they did not deliver but complemented many of their own services. The clients benefited by being able to access service locally without traveling long distances and also by being able to access COSTI’s other services for their other needs. The funder benefited by being able to provide funding to Job Skills who had a successful history of running the program in another area and not having to find another delivery agent without a track record (the funding decision to offer the program in the South was made in a very short period of time). This assured wide-access of service for clients in a large region with no gap in service.”
“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.”
Build relational capacity in your organization, so that your agency will be “partnership ready” should the opportunity arise on short notice. Network on an ongoing basis among agencies in your own and other sectors to form relationships that may lead you to potential partners that you would otherwise not be familiar with.
“The key to any successful partnership that Job Skills has formed in the past nine years… has been compatibility of mission and vision as well as the type of organization, i.e. not for profit. Corporate ‘sponsor’ partnerships have been utilized on an ‘event’ basis, not for supplementing program funding.”
Job Skills, Keswick
