6 activities for successful partnerships
Health Nexus resources
Video clips
Other resources
Working in partnership is a reality for many Ontario non-profit groups and organizations. Your organization may have few human or financial resources, be spread throughout the province or represent diverse communities. Working in partnership can enhance your ability to implement complex strategies to achieve community change.
The health of our communities requires more than any one group can provide. By connecting health practitioners, local programs and service providers, and community members, we can combine experience and best practice across disciplines to achieve far more together than would be possible on our own. In essence, community partnerships help to improve health and equity for all.
However, partners can have different objectives, activities, resources and expectations about working in partnership. Dynamic and effective partnerships require time, attention and learning new ways of working together.
6 activities for successful partnerships
Dynamic and effective community partnerships practice these six activities3, each partnership in its own unique way. Whether you are forming a new partnership or maintaining an existing one, these activities are equally relevant.
Health Nexus Resources
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What Successful Partnerships Do: 6 Key Activities Today, more and more organizations are being called upon to work in partnership, and so it is necessary to have the capacity to develop and maintain effective partnerships. This factsheet outlines 6 key activities of successful community partnerships. French version |
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Self-Evaluation Tool for Action in Partnership This tool focusses on different aspects of your partnership. It allows you to express your perceptions and opinions about your partnership experiences. It was designed to be used by members of a partnership who voluntarily participate in self-evaluation. It is not designed for accountability purposes or for results-based management. This document is a full translation and adaptation of the original tool entitled Outil diagnostique de l’action en partenariat, published in 2008 (second edition in 2014) by Direction de santé publique de l’Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal |
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Partner Contribution Matrix Adapted into English from Outil 8: Matrice d’analyse des ressources mises en jeu dans le partenariat. Repères et Outils pour des Partenariats Équitables et Solidaires, Cercle de Coopération des ONG de développement. Février 2013. This document is a Word file, to make electronic use easy. |
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Planning for Partnership Defines working in partnership at various levels and provides an overview of the essential requirements for putting a partnership in place. Details some activities required for dynamic and effective partnerships. French version |
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Effective Meetings Meetings can be an efficient way to disseminate information, obtain feedback, or make collective decisions. This short resource offers advice on the necessary components of effective meetings, broken down into three simple steps. French version |
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How to Create a Functional, Effective Advisory Committee Putting an advisory committee in place can be a good way to involve and engage the community in your organization’s work. This basic guide will help community organizations use best practices for creating advisory committees as an element of supporting community engagement. French version |
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Becoming an Ally in Partnerships: From Intent, to Reflection & Action PPT deck from a webinar |
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Participatory Evaluation Toolkit Defines evaluation, identifies what makes participatory evaluation unique, and reviews some important considerations for any evaluation. Describes key qualities to make sure your participatory evaluation activities are both empowering and effective, and outlines steps for coordinating evaluation activities. Following this, are descriptions of seven participatory evaluation techniques to help you(re)inform, (re)align, and (re)energize your collaborative efforts. French version |
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Facilitation for Healthy Communities Toolkit Provides a quick and easy reference guide to seven different facilitation techniques: Ice Breakers, Visioning, 1-2-4-All, Wise Crowds, Appreciative Inquiry, Generating & Prioritizing Ideas, and Popular Theatre. French version |
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The Power of Reflection: An introduction to participatory evaluation techniques Presents a brief theoretical introduction to participatory evaluation, guidance on how to begin, and three simple evaluation techniques that can be used by any community group or network. Offers practical and adaptable approaches to:
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Equity Analysis of Group Membership: A CLiP Template |
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Partnership Conversation Starter: A CLiP Template |
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Policy Template: Principles of Collaborative Leadership |
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Getting Started with... Partnership Development Working with community partners often allows us to accomplish more than we could working on our own. This resource provides a brief overview and selection of resources, websites and other materials to 'get you started’ in developing partnerships. |
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Governing for Partnership Success Describes a variety of governance approaches and models and provides practical suggestions for choosing a structure or form that will support the initiatives being undertaken by your partnership. French version |
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Terms of Reference Builder Having a Terms of Reference is an essential component of working in groups. It outlines the scope of the group's work and the responsibilities of members. This Terms of Reference Builder is intended as a place to start when developing your Terms of Reference. French version |
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Tipsheet: Problem Solving for Collaborative Partnerships Gillian Kranias responds to partnership challenges experienced by team members of a public health unit in Ontario. |
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Measuring Partnership Effectiveness Provides an overview of some of the many approaches to evaluating the functioning of partnerships and the work they do as well as some principles that should guide decision-making early on in the process. |
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Models & Elements of Collaborative Governance This resource supplements information found in Governing for Partnership Success, expands on governance theory for collaborative groups and profiles the structure and functioning of a sampling of governance models and frameworks |
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Network Mapping A brief overview of the uses and process of network mapping. French version |
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Connecting the Dots: A Handbook for Chronic Disease Prevention through Community Engagement. |
Video clips
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Gillian Kranias and Andrea Bodkin: Webinar - 6 activities for successful partnerships (42 min) | 2017 |
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Hanifa Kassam: Inclusion and equity in strategic planning (7 min) |
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Suzanne Doerge: Creating inclusive cities for all women (6.5 min) |
Other resources
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Collaboration Multiplier. Enhancing the Effectiveness of Multi-Field Collaboration |
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The Partnering Toolbook: An essential guide to cross-sector partnering The toolbook offers a concise overview of the essential elements that make for effective partnering. It contains seven tools to develop, sustain and assess inter-sectoral partnerships. This easy-to-use guide includes helpful strategies, flowcharts and tips for working with other agencies to build and maintain partnerships, along with partnership development tools. |
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Partnerships Analysis Tool This resource is designed to help organizations develop a clearer understanding of the range of purposes of collaborations, reflect on the partnerships they have established and focus on ways to strengthen new and existing partnerships by engaging in discussion about issues and ways forward. |
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Community Partnerships Resource Guide This toolkit describes several levels of partnerships and provides a six-step process for partnership development. It also contains an extensive list of links and resources for further exploration. |
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Community Tool Box The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change. It boasts 46 chapters and 16 toolkits that provide practical, step-by-step guidance in community-building and partnership development skills. Two of the Community Tool Box’s toolkits are particularly relevant to partnership development: |
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Working in Partnership: Recipes for Success This resource from Alberta, provides a comprehensive framework for partnership development, as well as useful tools to assess an organization’s readiness to partner, identifying potential partners, creating partnership agreements, as well as implementing and evaluating partnership initiatives. |