Support collaborative and partnership work LEGACY
Overview
This standard relates to the role of community development practitioners in encouraging and supporting collaborative work. Community development practitioners enable communities and groups to work in partnership and collaboration with others in order to achieve common aims, access resources or increase influence.
The community development standards are arranged in six key areas:
• One - Understand and practise community development
• Two - Understand and engage with communities
• Three - Group work and collective action
• Four - Collaboration and cross-sectoral working
• Five - Community learning for social change
• Six - Governance and organisational development
This standard is within Key Area Four.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
1 facilitate communities to identify common needs and issues they share with other communities
2 identify other communities with similar interests to share ideas, experience and practice to potentially benefit both communities
3 support communities to clearly identify and agree aims, outcomes and short and long-term strategies for working collaboratively
4 support communities to assess the potential risks and benefits of engaging in partnership work
5 provide information about the remit, aims and work of existing partnerships and highlight opportunities for involvement to own community group
6 support communities to review the availability of resources for partnership working
7 support the establishment of transparent and accountable structures and systems for developing collaborative work between communities
8 promote collaborative working which recognises and addresses barriers to participation and promotes trust and understanding based on mutual respect between communities
9 support monitoring and evaluation of partnership or collaborative working to improve future practice
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
The rationale and context
1 how representative and participatory democracy work in practice
2 concepts of political literacy, rights and responsibilities associated with governance
3 the contribution that diverse communities and autonomous groups can make to decisions affecting communities
4 how the nature of power relationships affects collaborative working
Factors which support effective partnership working
5 how decisions made by partnerships can impact on communities
6 the levels of representation and accountability required for effective partnership working
7 the motives, aims and remits of partnerships
8 barriers to involvement and approaches and techniques for overcoming them
9 the resource and support implications for engaging with a wide spectrum of potential stakeholders
10 the life cycle of partnerships, their limitations and the factors that can affect sustainability
Techniques and methods
11 inclusive and participatory techniques for involving people
12 how to negotiate, plan, agree, review and evaluate common goals and methods for partnership working
13 the pros and cons of working in a partnership
14 how to increase accountability to communities
15 how to encourage diversity at all stages of collaborative/partnership working
16 how to deal with a lack of collaborative working in a partnership
17 how to monitor, evaluate and review the work of a partnership and its effectiveness
Scope/range
Scope Performance
Scope Knowledge
Values
Community development is underpinned by a set of values which distinguish it from other, sometimes related, activities in the community. These values are at the core of community development and underpin each of the standards. The values are;
1 Social justice and equality
2 Anti-discrimination
3 Community empowerment
4 Collective action
5 Working and learning together
The following examples illustrate how each of the community development values might inform practice in this standard. These statements are not part of assessment requirements.
1 barriers which prevent the involvement and participation of marginalised and excluded communities are identified and addressed
2 the autonomy and diversity of communities involved in partnerships is recognised, respected and encouraged
3 structures are developed to utilise the skills, knowledge and experience of community members and others
4 new and creative ways of working together are explored and encouraged
5 shared learning underpins all partnership activities