Working together words and links

There are growing numbers of New Zealand and international examples of effective working together.  We list some here and will add to them.

Project Twin Streams is an urban sustainability project which aims to restore 56kms of Waitakere stream banks through an integrated community development approach. By engaging local communities and residents, via community organisations, the streambanks are weeded, replanted with natives and maintained.

The project is about many things: community engagement, stream health, natural environment and the health and recreation of people and their community.The project also fits in with other stormwater initiatives in Waitakere. It is designed to work with nature rather than against it. www.projectwinstreams.org.nz

Pen to Paper (to add along with other partnering documentation)

Better Connected Services for Kiwis - not place-based, community-led development but fascinating insights into the practice of working together that are highly releavnt.

It features  a project that brought together academic and practitioner perspectives on what is happening on the ground in New Zealand. It drew on the experience of other administrations such as Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and on the public policy literature. The grounded theory research approach meant that we focussed on the practical experience of front-line staff and managers in the New Zealand state sector.

What is different about this project is that this is almost the first research in NZ about why interagency work actually happens on the ground. As one of the staff commented "Others have asked about what we did but no-one has asked before about why or how."  Visit their website

Vibrant Communities Canada is a community-driven effort to reduce poverty in Canada by creating partnerships that make use of our most valuable assets – people, organizations, businesses and governments.

It’s a unique approach to poverty reduction that allows communities to learn from — and help — each other.

Vibrant Communities links communities across Canada, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, in a collective effort to test the most effective ways to reduce poverty at the grassroots level.

Vibrant Communities concentrates on four key approaches:

Annie E Casey Foundation's Making Connections - Improving outcomes for children by strengthening families and transforming communities

Making Connections is the flagship initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Its core strategy is based on the belief that the best way to improve outcomes for vulnerable children living in tough neighborhoods is to strengthen their families’ connections to economic opportunity, positive social networks, and effective services and supports. Launched in 1999, Making Connections is a decade-long effort to demonstrate this theory in disinvested communities across the country, and in full partnership with residents, community-based organizations, local government, businesses, social service agencies, community foundations, and other funders.

Casey’s two-generation approach seeks to change the future for large numbers of at-risk kids by finding ways to help their parents succeed in the present. We know that kids do well when their families do well and families do better when they live in supportive neighborhoods and communities. We are committed to changing the environment in these neighborhoods so families can connect to economic opportunity, social networks, and trustable services and supports. Visit Annie E Casey's website