Community Collaborations
For Community Leaders and Organizations
The purpose of the Community Collaborations training is to enhance the capacity of rural community leaders and organizations to leverage the power of working together. Our goal is to help communities build collaborations that “get things done” and which—in the process—infuse rural communities with vitality.
Only through collaborations can community members tackle their shared problems and fully take advantage of new opportunities. Collaborations occur on many different scales: from just two organizations pursuing a joint goal, to a multitude of organizations across the community working to promote community well-being, to clusters of communities jointly striving to promote a regional vision.
This training is open to all members of the community, regardless of whether or not they have attended past Ford Institute classes. The only criterion for attendance is an interest in learning more about the nuts and bolts of true collaboration.
What you will learn:
- The What and Why of Collaboration: We use the word “collaboration” often to describe working together, but here you will learn about five levels: networking, coordination, cooperation, partnerships and true collaboration. Each has its own characteristics and is appropriate in it its own situation.
- The How of Successful Collaboration: Many factors influence the success of collaboration, including goals, context, members, structures, process and communication. Each of the five levels of collaboration has its own “how to” guidelines discussed in this section.
- The Challenges of Complex Problems: Entities are most likely to explore collaborating when problems are complex. Complex problems, however, have their own dimensions that may require many specific entities to collaborate. Often these challenges are long-term and require systemic change.
- How to Create and Sustain Collaboration: Developing a collaborative effort is its own challenge, with issues regarding who has power, how to improve stakeholder equity, what processes are best, and even how to work across different organizational cultures. Learn the steps of initiating collaboration, keeping it going, and ending it, too.
Facilitating organizations:
Human Systems (Roi Crouch & Mary Ward) – serving Southern Oregon & Siskiyou County, California
Rural Development Initiatives, Inc. (RDI) – serving Eastern Oregon
Technical Assistance for Community Services (TACS) – serving Northwest Oregon
RURAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES
2620 River Road, Suite 205 . Eugene, Oregon 97404 . phone 541-684-9077 . fax 541-684-8993