How ready are we? An honest look at partnerships

Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

Winston Churchill

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This past week saw the first conference of the newly recreated Family Support Institute of Ontario (FSIO). One of the workshops was co-facilitated by Tammy Decarié, Early Years Health Promoter at Queen West Community Health Centre and I, Coordinator of Families Are Important Resources at Family Service Toronto.

We used World Café to explore some of the things that Tammy and I have identified as being key ingredients to the success of our partnership work. Those components were discussed under specific questions at each table. The question was “Thinking about the partnership you are in, or want to start, what’s needed to move to a place of passion? Or innovation? Or interdependence? Or action?”

The buzz in the room was great. People were ready to dialogue about what their own personal experiences were with partnerships. They shared examples of how well they were working together, what challenges existed to working more effectively and what dreams they had for better partnerships.

More than anything, they shared their readiness to connect and explore.

It left me thinking about the great examples of how World Café is being used around the world by corporations and wondering why it is that we in the not-for-profit sector have not begun to use dialogue as a place of agency and community transformation. I am wondering if it is the same thing that keeps many oppressed people from being more civically engaged. If all my energy is spent getting resources to try and pay the bills and I still live in a dump, how can I advocate for......

Notes from the workshop will be posted here by the end of this week.