Executive Summary

This collaboration primer is a hands-on resource for organizations seeking concrete methods to create sustainable partnerships. This resource is based on the literature focusing on inter-agency collaboration and the experiences of a multi-stakeholder partnership for health promotion. The suggestions provide practical guidance and useful tools for collaborators in an easily accessible format and include “living lab” sections that capture the harmonization process in a real-life context.

About the Harmonization Project

The Harmonization Project was a collaborative effort initiated by the Canadian Cancer Society, Northern Health (NH) and BC Cancer Agency (BCCA) to identify ways to work together on cancer prevention initiatives. Members from these three organizations recognized that by working together and harmonizing their cancer prevention efforts, they could achieve a greater impact.

These three organizations, along with researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Athabasca University, aimed to develop new approaches to cancer prevention tailored for communities in northern British Columbia. With funding from the Canadian Cancer Society, two health promotion projects were undertaken: Stop Smoking Before Surgery (SSBS) and Men’s Healthy Eating and Active Living (M-HEAL). The team combined their resources and expertise to design, deliver, and evaluate new initiatives in both of these projects.

In addition, the team engaged in developing a deeper understanding of collaborative processes. The health promotion projects provided an opportunity to study the processes of collaboration to identify strategies that support and sustain collaboration. Through a developmental evaluation, with ongoing critical reflection in the form of focus groups, individual interviews, surveys, and regularly scheduled reflective questions, the Harmonization Team sought to iteratively isolate best practices for collaborative approaches in health promotion. This primer draws on the experiences of the Harmonization Team during the implementation and evaluation of their projects.

University of British Columbia

Audience

This content is intended for a diverse audience, from grassroots non-profit organizations to provincial policy makers and funders. Groups of community partners seeking change through collaboration will find this guide helpful, as will those groups seeking to ensure the sustainability of existing collaborative projects.

This resource is well-suited to health promotion managers for community groups, health authorities, and non-profits who want to work together to build effective strategies that will enable the development of stronger, more resilient communities over the long-term. Individuals working in technology, innovation, education, environmental, and business sectors will also find this guide useful.

 

Objectives

The objective of this practical, evidence-based primer is to support multiple stakeholders in their work together to achieve mutual goals. Inter-agency collaboration has the potential for improved health dividends through aligning and augmenting shared resources. To date, however, there have been few guides available on HOW to collaborate. There is a need to better understand the application of real-life principles involved in collaborative processes. It is in response to this need that this primer has been developed. Informed by ongoing critical reflection, the team’s experiences were distilled into key learnings and are presented here in a format to support effective, collaborative partnerships. Every phase outlined in this work links to the key lessons from the project and includes ideas that will enable others to build strong, collaborative relationships.

Audience

This content is intended for a diverse audience, from grassroots non-profit organizations to provincial policy makers and funders. Groups of community partners seeking change through collaboration will find this guide helpful, as will those groups seeking to ensure the sustainability of existing collaborative projects.

This resource is well-suited to health promotion managers for community groups, health authorities, and non-profits who want to work together to build effective strategies that will enable the development of stronger, more resilient communities over the long-term. Individuals working in technology, innovation, education, environmental, and business sectors will also find this guide useful.

Objectives

The objective of this practical, evidence-based primer is to support multiple stakeholders in their work together to achieve mutual goals. Inter-agency collaboration has the potential for improved health dividends through aligning and augmenting shared resources. To date, however, there have been few guides available on HOW to collaborate. There is a need to better understand the application of real-life principles involved in collaborative processes. It is in response to this need that this primer has been developed. Informed by ongoing critical reflection, the team’s experiences were distilled into key learnings and are presented here in a format to support effective, collaborative partnerships. Every phase outlined in this work links to the key lessons from the project and includes ideas that will enable others to build strong, collaborative relationships.