Resumen de Integrated approaches and collaboration between agencies
They say that the best things in life are free. This also applies to working life. Collaboration, working together is something that doesn’t actually cost anything, but the possible benefits are immeasurable. An integrated approach to social problem-solving and innovation is closely tied to collaboration. It seems that social innovations have more effectiveness and are more easily scaled-up when they are based on an integrated approach right from the beginning.An integrated approach based on collaboration is crucial in ending homelessness. Especially Housing First, with the principle of separating housing and services, offers a valuable platform for collaboration. It also seems that for many service providers who work with homeless people, the supply of housing is the most important but also the most difficult part of getting people out of homelessness. Acquiring new housing, either by buying or building, requires substantial capital investments and is often far from the financial possibilities of most NGOs working in the sector. But collaboration with some social housing providers can be mutually beneficial.Projects and activities presented in this section offer a highly interesting array of variation on collaboration and integrated approaches between agencies. Is there some common denominator between these projects? There is at least one very obvious thing: all these agencies engaged in collaboration think first of all what is most beneficial for their target group, the people they aim to help. Collaboration seems to have very different forms and in some cases it is difficult to see whether the idea of a specific form of collaboration or the idea to collaborate with a specific agency came first. A fruitful collaboration depends on the idea of commons: it is something you create and own together. When working with complex issues it is obvious that you can’t own your clients or target group. No one can own homelessness; no one can solve it alone.At Y-Foundation we have worked in collaboration with over 100 agencies, some even right from the beginning for over 30 years. If we have learned something it is certainly this: no matter if our partner is big or small they are equally important for us. Collaboration between agencies doesn’t differ from collaboration between individual people. It is about trust and respect. The more you give the more you get.
