Community Led Collaboration
Roundtable Discussion Report
February 2015
Table of Contents
Introduction to CollaborationNI ............................................................................................................. 1
Community Led Collaboration ................................................................................................................ 2
Strive NI CIC............................................................................................................................................. 4
Workshop Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 6
Key Findings ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Appendix 1 .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Introduction to CollaborationNI
CollaborationNI (CNI) was formally launched on 30 March
2011, as a partnership programme between NICVA, CO3
and Stellar Leadership, commissioned by Building Change
Trust. CNI provides practical support and resources
across the whole spectrum of collaborative working to
voluntary and community sector organisations.
As part of Phase One of CNI, 553 events were held
covering training, expert facilitation, legal support sessions, coaching and policy seminars for over
4,000 individuals from 754 organisations.
Phase Two, aims to produce a smaller number of deeper collaborations which will influence policy
and decision makers. It will see an extension of the debate through a range of policy symposiums
which will continue to challenge our thinking, examine current approaches and focus on particular
models of collaboration, under a number of thematic areas, including health, social housing, young
people, arts, criminal justice and older people.
The aim of the policy symposiums is to challenge, inform and develop political and government
thinking about the support requirements of the Third Sector to encourage and cultivate a culture of
effective collaboration.
The broad range of discussion will also provide an opportunity for Third Sector leaders and
government officials to learn from good, and not so good, practices in Northern Ireland and
elsewhere in building effective collaborations, resulting in improved services and better client
outcomes.
The role of CNI is to facilitate discussions on the theme of collaboration in a way that that delivers
better outcomes through high quality, professional services.
1
Community Led Collaboration
On Tuesday 11th February 2015, CollaborationNI, in
partnership with Interaction Institute for Social Change
(IISC), facilitated a roundtable event to examine the issue of
collaboration and leadership at local community level. The
discussion focused on the realities of community
collaboration, looking at the opportunities and challenges of
joint working at community level in the current climate.
The aim of this event was to build on the Collaboration in
Communities workshop which took place on Friday 16th
January 2015 and focused on the realities of community
collaboration, considering the opportunities and challenges
of joint working at community level in the current context. A
summary of the feedback from the small group discussion
can be found at Appendix 1.
While collaboration garners a lot of attention today,
especially in the fields of management theory and leadership
studies, there is relatively little attention given to it at
community level, and even less attention paid to the
requirements of the community leadership that supports it.
Given the radical changes in the structure, powers and
operations of local Councils from 1st April 2015, which have
particular implications for community based organisations
and their leaders, this roundtable brought was an
opportunity to bring together community leaders, local
council representatives, public sector officials and councillors
to examine community based collaboration. It allowed for
the exploration of the particular needs and requirements of
community leaders, and the organisations that support
opportunities for authentic and effective collaboration.
IISC was founded in 1993
by Interaction Associates as
an expression of its
commitment to social
change and as a way of
bringing its collaborative
methodologies into the
social sector. Since then,
IISC has grown from a staff
of two to an organization
of over twenty staff
members and a cadre of
affiliates who have worked
with thousands of
individuals, organizations,
coalitions and networks to
boost and amplify their
impact. In 2012, IISC
experienced its first major
leadership transition when
founding executive
director, Marianne,
stepped aside from that
role in favor of focusing on
consulting to both IISC and
her own clients, and on
developing new client
partnerships for IISC. IISCs
new president, Ceasar
McDowell, joined that
same year and is leading
the organisation forward
with an expanded,
reinvigorated, and
passionately dedicated
team.
Some of the questions that were considered included:
 What are the particular characteristics of collaboration
at community level that require specialised support?
 What are the necessary conditions for establishing an authentic collaborative culture amongst
community leaders and organisations?
 What makes an effective collaborative community leader?
 What are some of the chief dangers and obstacles to successful collaboration?
2
Roundtable purpose
The purpose of this roundtable was to
bring together people playing a
leadership role in local communities
with politicians, policy and other
decision makers to explore intersectoral collaboration and how best to
support it. 60 people, from a wide
range of Voluntary, Community and
Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations,
took part in the workshop and it is the
intent of this report to capture the
salient points of the discussion and
outline the necessary action points.
The roundtable began with an introduction from Nora Smith, Chief Officers Third Sector (CO3) Chief
Executive, who outlined the potential benefits of looking specifically at community collaboration,
and detailed the opportunities and difficulties that could be faced.
The Three T’s of Community Collaboration
1. Time- in relation to time specific collaborations, it has to be remembered that forced
collaborations do not generally work. For a collaboration to maximize its chance of success, all
partners must be willing participants, and not simply be involved in the process because they
feel that they have to be;
2. Timing- significant time has to be expended by all participants to build a successful
collaboration;
3. Times- at present the VCSE sector is going through a period of significant change. The present
austerity measures, central government cuts, as well as the biggest shakeup to local
government in Northern Ireland since 1973, has created enormous uncertainty, but also
provides for an environment where increased collaboration is being promoted as a way of
dealing with the demands of this new dispensation.
Desired Outcomes
Louise O’Meara, Regional Director, IISC Ireland Office, outlined the desired outcomes from the
workshop, which were:
i. A shared understanding of the background to the workshop so that all were starting from a
common point of reference;
ii. A greater awareness of what supports effective collaboration specifically at community level and
what the key challenges are to inform thinking;
iii. An awareness of how more effective collaboration between the community and other sectors
can be promoted and supported; and
iv. Agreed next steps.
3
Strive NI CIC
Strive NI CIC is a consortia of six organisations, who are a mixture
of charities and social enterprises, working with young people
aged 16-24, using sport as a platform for development.
Strive have worked in this area for nearly 15 years, across
numerous partners and funders, both locally and internationally.
Strive have identified that avenues exist in Northern Ireland to
look at the development of a sports consortia, encompassing
organisations that offer a unique selling service. The rationale of
Strive is to offer a bespoke service that can target the following
areas:
 Educational under-achievement
 Mental health concerns/drugs/alcohol
 Crime and anti-social behaviour
 Community cohesion.
The context in which Strive sought to collaborate was against the
backdrop of how services would be delivered with the Review of
Public Administration; cuts in public spending; a shift away from
direct funding towards increased commissioning and tendering;
and too many competing organisations vying for the same areas
of service delivery and funding.
Michael McCusker
Founder/ Exec Director
Strive NI CIC
Michael has over 15 years’
experience in private and
community and voluntarily
sector and has worked
extensively with young
people in personal
development through
sports and has vast
networks within the sector
in the UK, Ireland and
internationally. Michael is
the Founder of 180
Degrees Training CIC,
established to provide
services that help inspire
change one degree at a
time in some of our most at
risk young people through
engagement in sports
coaching, personal
development and
education within their
community.
Some of the core questions that the partners in the consortia
were forced to address when they began to investigate the idea
of collaborating together were:
 Is this an alliance or a network?
 Is this just a synergy, matched to competing needs?
 What were the skills and competencies of the group?
 Would the boards of all the organisations commit to the collaboration?
 Was their collective cohesion within the cultures and vales of the individual organisations?
 Is the collaboration forced, due to government priorities and the need to work smarter to win
contracts, or was it based on a genuine desire to work more collaboratively?
 Does working smarter mean working more with less? Is this rationalisation or genuine
collaboration?
 Does scale allow for better opportunities to partner with other public and private sector
organisations?
 Does this collaboration provide better options and services for the people we deliver services
to?
 How will impact be measured and communicated?
4
In order to evaluate whether the collaboration was successful, Strive identified the following
benefits that they hoped to achieve, as well as the challenges they would have to overcome to
deliver them:
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Benefits
Shared knowledge and learning to allow for
increased innovation and flexibility within
service delivery
Communication and marketing functions
would be enhanced
Values and culture aligned with a common
vision and purpose
Focus on what can be done and what
doesn’t need to be done
Opportunity to explore overseas markets
for export potential
Opportunity to develop a shared voice for
their sector, which has been built from their
previous position of strength
Provided for an increased geographical
reach that could be aligned with local
government changes
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5
Challenges
Lack of understanding across funding sector
about the role of collaboration
Organisations within VCSE sector are still
not prepared, or are unwilling, to work
collaboratively
The role of the NI Executive on the issue of
collaboration is still unclear- in particularly
with regard to Strategic Return on
Investment (SROI)
Mission drift of organisations who want to
align with the consortia means that
duplication still exists
Future changes to the makeup of NI
departments, especially when it comes to
deprivation, communities and sport, means
that Strive will have to assess who they
align their voice with
Workshop Discussion
Following the presentation from Strive, participants at the roundtable were asked to break into
small groups and consider how greater collaboration within the community sector, and among the
community sector and other players such as councils, government departments and the wider VCSE
sector, could be promoted and supported. In addition, to this each group was asked to identify a
practical step to help overcome this barrier. Below is a summary of the barriers and practical steps
that were identified by participants.
Barrier To Greater Collaboration
Lack of trust
Time constraints
Lack of long term vision
Relationship building - due to existing time
pressures it is often difficult to foster and
develop new relationships
Impossible to build institutional trust between
organisations when key individuals keep
changing
Fear that individual organisations might lose
out as a result of collaboration
Procurement processes which force
collaboration risk undermining the whole
model and its potential benefits
Smaller groups are forced out of operation
because larger groups are better known
Ethos of staffed organisations in the VCSE
sector and volunteer led organisations can call
into question the motivation behind
collaboration
Obligation to collaborate
Practical Step To Overcome Barrier
Know what your job is and do it
Clearly identify roles and responsibilities, as
well as the availability and ownership of
resources
Prioritize the meetings and events that people
attend, and establish good communication
mechanisms to ensure information is shared
and decisions can be taken effectively
Need for improved political leadership and for
collaboration between politicians and the
community
Set time aside for relationship development to
ensure that potential partners are a good fit for
each other
Attempt to ensure that when staff are
appointed to key liaison positions that they are
prepared to commit for the medium/ long term
future
Ensure that effective due diligence is carried
out in advance of collaboration and that there
is a sync of values and aims between
organisations - there is a need to ‘grasp the
nettle’
Procurement exercises need to establish a
balance between single tender and partnership
bids, with the latter only being required where
there is a genuine need for more than one
organization to be involved.
Whilst it is understood there has to be a lead
contractor, collaboration must be fair and not
just a tick box exercise. There is a need for total
honesty and an understanding that
collaborations must be organic and cannot be
forced. The partnership agreement should
establish and protect the role of the smaller
organisations.
Salaried organisations can provide the support
and expertise but it is important to place value
on the skills and experiences of volunteer led
organisations
There needs to be an opportunity for all sides
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There is an expectation that the VCSE will have
to give up some autonomy or independence to
engage in collaboration
Resources- collaboration is often very
expensive in the short to medium term
Collaboration whatever shape it takes requires
hard work. It requires effort, commitment and
time.
to say ‘no’- especially when a collaboration is
not key to securing funding
There needs to be an equal focus on what
government (both central and local) are
prepared to give up to encourage
collaboration- it should not all be one way
traffic
The right level of collaboration is the level that
is correct for each organization but there
should be some form of support to assist the
collaborative process- especially in its early
stages
Government need to recognize and invest in
the necessary support to help to develop and
support collaboration.
7
Key Findings
Following on from the discussion each group reported back on their key findings and it was obvious
that there were a number of key themes that were being repeated. Arising out of this the following
key barriers to collaboration were identified.
Initial cost- collaboration takes both time and money. All collaboration comes at a cost and there
was widespread agreement that there was a need for increased levels of support at this early stage.
Community capacity- at present there is a deficit in terms of ability to work collaboratively and to
ensure that collaboration is a success.
Fear- for participants, in particular smaller partners, there is a persistent fear that they are going to
lose independence, or that they may not be able to benefit financially. Linked closely to this is the
fear that as an organization they will lose the right to set their own agenda.
Practicability- people have to want to collaborate, but it also has to work in practice. In
circumstances where collaborations are viewed as having been imposed ‘from the top;, without the
buy in of key stakeholders, there is a huge risk that the partnership will not work in practice. All sides
have to be comfortable with each other and they must see the collaboration as being a logical,
organic process which will deliver results for all partners.
Leadership- ensuring that you have the appropriate people at the table who have a shared vision
and outcome. We need to build the capacity of our Third Sector leaders to encourage and enable
collaboration. People collaborate not organisations.
Mismatch of culture- this is especially true when dealing with organisations from different sectors.
When dealing with organisations which are highly risk adverse and who want to know, before the
collaborative process has actually commenced, what the outcome will be, this can prove to inhibit
progress and may undermine the whole partnership arrangement.
The need to feel valued by government- at present many organisations feel that they are being
forced by government to collaborate for the sake of it, or that they are being forced to enter into
procurement processes which place little value on the services offered by VCSEs. There is a real need
for government to value the vital services provided by VCSEs, as well as to demonstrate and
promote the value of collaboration. There needs to be a shift in thinking away from placing value
only on the cost of service delivery, which focuses solely on tendering and procurement. There is
also a need for technical assistance to be provided to ensure that organisations of all shapes and size
can avail of the benefits of collaboration.
8
Appendix 1
9
Collaboration in Communities
Workshop on Friday 16th January 2015
Feedback from small group discussion
What Supports Collaboration?

Leadership and shared vision – seeing what needs done, having the right people at the table
to do it and doing it. The ability to manage the tension between self-interest and collective
interests requires strong leadership. It is important to have a shared understanding of the
outcomes and also of the problems.

Necessity and survival. Funding sources are shrinking and it was felt that in some cases
collaborations offer both efficiencies and effectiveness.

Equality of voice. Although the balance of power in some partnerships may not always be
equal, it is important to establish mutual expectations among the individual partners by
recognising and valuing everybody’s role and voice at the table.

Supportive Government processes – workable bureaucracy. Funders need to recognise the
importance of responding to local needs. Some funders do not offer flexibility to allow for
innovation, and this can hinder our ability to respond to, and develop new ways of
addressing, complex challenges facing communities.

Clear vision / outcomes. Collaborative working is essentially an arrangement that should
enable those taking part to deliver their mission more effectively and make service
improvements. It is important that there exists a shared vision, clear goals and objectives
and outcomes for the collaborative effort.

Trust and honesty. Trust builds slowly, through interaction and experience. It comes
through time and ensuring that everybody is signed up to the shared purpose and are not
coming to the table with different agendas.

Opportunity, timing and luck!
What are the Challenges in relation to collaboration at community level?

The motivation by some funders for encouraging more collaboration is a guise to cut costs.
Establishing effective collaborations takes time and resources. It is often not easy and
straight forward. There is a lack of understanding of the complexities involved in forming
and maintaining collaborations regardless of their size and shape.

Unequal collaboration – win/lose thinking. If one of the partner’s self-interest is prioritised
over the group interest, it will not work. Also, not everybody will have access to the same
resources. If one partner is not able to meet their commitments, but their intent is solid,
10
what is the role of the stronger partners? Some may ‘pull the ladder up behind them’, whilst
others may reach out and support one another.

Collaborating for the short term with no long term commitment. The commitment may
wane once the funding has been secured.

Differences in values and culture. The culture, state of readiness to collaborate and
communication skills of partners may vary. Subsequently, this may severely hamper the
collaborative intent.

Communication is key. Clarity and agreement on vision requires clear and open
communication. Where are we going? What do we want to achieve? Is your motivation for
being here different to mine? – answers to these fundamental questions need to be clearly
communicated throughout the lifetime of the collaboration.

Personalities / people. You may not like everybody around the table, but you have to
respect their position. Informed and clear leadership in government and other funders is
also key.

Timeframe – funders. More funding applications are being designed to encourage
collaborative bids. Whilst this is positive the timeframe set to complete some of these
applications is unrealistic. It does not allow the necessary time and resources to pull
together the ‘right’ partners. Instead it can encourage applications from the usual suspects
who may not always by the most appropriate to deliver on the outcomes. If funders are
serious about encouraging more collaborations they must cultivate the right environment to
do so. Funder ‘imposed’ collaboration and a lack of recognition of the time and capacity
required for effective joint working are big challenges for the sector.

To date Government funding has encouraged competition rather than collaboration. Project
funding has replaced many core funding streams and this is weakening the infrastructure of
community organisations.

Roles, responsibilities and accountabilities are central. Clarity on these is especially
important at the outset, when you are still building trust. If you are at the table but unsure
of your role, it can be hugely challenging and disempowering.
Outcomes / vision. The lack of a shared vision and agreement on joint outcomes for any
collaborative endeavour is a significant challenge. Effective leadership is required to address
this.
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Key messages for politicians, policy and other decision makers…

Collaboration needs to be supported. The quest for finding efficiencies has created a belief
that mergers/consolidation leads to better efficiencies. Funders have to recognise that
forced collaborations will not work. Building the capacity of the sector to work more
collaboratively requires investment and time.
11

They (Gov Departments/Public Sector) dictate what they want rather than working
collaboratively with community organisations to work it out. A shared understanding of
what is required is needed.
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Need for recognition of what we (the community sector) are doing. There is a need to value
the services we are providing and the level and depth of collaboration that already exists.

There is a need to grasp the nettle and address tensions / take action in relation to Statutory
and Community/Voluntary Sector relations. A shared vision, built on ‘win/win’ thinking is
required.

“Invest” (as opposed to fund) more in the community sector to enable it to provide the best
services / value and meet needs of citizens.
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Some Public Sector organisations want to strengthen their relationships with the sector but
don’t know how…

Communities / individuals are best heard through community organisations - so build
services through listening and engaging with the sector.

Informed and capable leadership within government/funders is needed, practiced in the
process of effective collaborations and in systems of change.
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