PLEACOctober 24-26, 2012

Collaborating for Impact:

Making the most of our sector

The Connecting Report: Building community capacity

• To improve the capacity of non-legal community organizations to provide basic legal information and referral to their clients.

• Access to legal information and services for people who do not speak English or French or who live in rural or remote areas of Ontario.

• An organizational model for a “Consortium” initiative to establish and enhance connections between legal and non-legal community organizations.

When collaborative projects work:

Key ingredients: Strong relationshipsConcrete, shared goal identified by the partners out of their day-to-day work and in harmony with their organizational mandates, Structural arrangements to facilitate their working together, and “somewhere to go” for process and trouble-shooting support.

Key qualities of our environment in Ontario: Many successful collaborative partnershipsMany legal and community organizations that have extensive experience working collaboratively.

Build on “the good work of many dedicated organizations”, and draw on the strength of their experience.

Respect that the participation of community organizations must produce results for them that augment their work and fit within their mandate and vision.

Challenges key to design:

Promote understanding, trust, respect and strong relationships between partners.

Build on existing successes and strengths, and foster new responses to areas of need, strengthen relationships between organizations, encourage a sense of sharing and promote achievement of common goals.

Provide a concrete starting point for engaging community organizations that are often the first point of contact for linguistic minorities and rural and remote residents with legal difficulties.

Two levels of “collaboration”: • Strategic alliances between front-line organizations closely engaged at the

community level, and • Sharing of knowledge and insight and exchange of materials and resources.

Connecting Communities: Components

• Collaborative community training projects• PLEI Learning Exchange: province-wide

audience to share learnings and experience from the projects, and to promote the goal of strengthening connections 

• Advisory Committee • CLEO provides the Secretariat support for the

work of the Advisory Committee and to the projects. 

Connecting Communities: Focus

• Training for front-line workers in community organizations, about legal information and referral

• Training = building skills in a broad sense• Priority areas of law: consumer protection,

housing, human rights, criminal justice, employment, family and child protection, health care and mental health, immigration and refugee status, income support.