Collaborative Practices are varied ways that we can work together to achieve a common goal. It may occur between individuals, organisations, services or communities. Collaborative practice is used across a range of sectors such as human services, education and health.
Collaboration requires community engagement and input. It also requires the organisation seeking the community input, to respect the knowledge and advice provided and act upon it.
Community development highly values collaborative practice as a way of coming together, sharing resources and experiences to achieve something that would be difficult to achieve alone. Through these processes we can celebrate diversity, empower our communities and promote active citizenship. Some of the most common collaborative practices include:
The Community Toolbox have developed an in depth article on how to promote collaborative agreements between agencies.
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As a community development worker you will often be working in a collaborative way. You may even be required to be a part of a collaborative practice like the ones listed above – either as a facilitator or a participant. When we work together we can pool our resources, skills and knowledge and our diversity in thought can lead to innovations that we would not have on our own.
This article from Community Door provides more information on collaborative practice models.
Collaboration allows us to know more than we are capable of knowing by ourselves.
– Paul Soraz
You might notice that a lot of the activities in collaborative practices start with “co.” This prefix commonly means “together.” When we talk about collaboration in CD we are talking about being “equal together.” Many collaborative groups work with a dominant culture that overrides the equality of people’s knowledge and ideas. It is important that we work with this dynamic in mind and regularly question the culture that forms to make sure it is inclusive and values all members in a way that is meaningful to them.
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We collaborate regularly in both our personal and professional lives. Times we find ourselves collaborating might include:
It might be obvious to us when we are involved in a collaborative approach. However, some tell tale signs are:
Think of a time when you were involved in or facilitated a collaborative approach that resulted in a successful outcome.
Share your responses in the comments section at the bottom of this page.
Two collaborative approaches that CCSA and our members are often involved in are co-design and communities of practice.
Click on Co-Design below to continue.
Consider some of the barriers to inclusive engagement and how to mitigate the risks with this article from Better Together.
Read these chapters from Community Toolbox that explain the benefits of multisector collaboration and multicultural collaboration and how to incorporate them into your practice.
Read this booklet from Human Impact on how to plan for collaboration. The focus is on how to collaborate between government agencies and community organisations.
