The inter-agency services collaboration project : Interagency services collaboration project

In Canada, this interest has been reflected at the federal level most recently with policy statements such as the 2001 Accord Between the Government of Canada and the Voluntary Sector and the 2002 Code of Good Practice on Funding, which outline respective roles and responsibilities and shared values to guide collaboration between Ottawa and the NPO sector.1 The discussions around collaboration wit [...] The second overall finding of the project, however, was the outline of a “bottom-up” approach to NPO collaboration that has potential to increase collaboration and improve outcomes for clients and communities. [...] The most promising approach to increase levels of collaboration in NPO services, and to increase the kinds of collaborations most likely to improve outcomes, is for all stakeholders to work together to create a policy and practice environment that best nurtures bottom-up collaborations that evolve to respond to complex community needs in innovative ways. [...] This is due to the limited amount of quantitative work undertaken in the NPO sector, as well as to the limitations of the evaluation capacity of the field (there are few measurable indicators of successful outcomes of collaboration). [...] In England, the Office of the Third Sector housed in the Cabinet Office advocates across government for the sector, researches the sector’s needs, and initiates consultations with the sector.