Military Family Services Community Development

1. Military Family ServicesCommunity Development 26 January 2017

2. Aim To provide you with an introduction to the MFS Community Development Team

3. Staff

4. Strategic partnering is one of the most critical building blocks of business success in today's knowledge and information economy. Today's business leaders realize they can't succeed without the cooperation of others, whether through internal teams or external alliances

5. Agenda Current MFS/MFRC impetus for partnership development What is the foundation for a strong partnership? What organizational culture characteristics are required for an organization being able to support alliance development? What are some tangible action steps you can take for building a successful, sustainable partnership? How can we assess the effectiveness of our organization's existing partnerships? Why do truly cooperative partnerships usually remain an elusive goal? What will be the likely outcome of approaching a partnership with the intent of simply buying a needed capability?

6. CF Ombudsman Strategic Requirement: • It is recommended that the CF continue to pursue partnership opportunities that enhance its ability to support military families, without relinquishing control or responsibility of the national military family support function. • Partnerships offer the potential to increase the support that DND/CF is able to bring to bear and/or access external stakeholders who would otherwise be largely inaccessible • The CF must become a better partner, making it simpler and more mutually beneficial for external organizations to contribute to supporting military families.

8. Asset Based Approach • A "clear commitment to discovering a community's capacities and assets". • Community Assets include skills, knowledge, talents and experience • Does not remove the need for outside resources, but makes their use more effective by: • Starting with what is present in the community – A mindset! • Concentrating on the agenda-building and problem-solving capacity of the community • Stressing a sharing of investment, creativity, and control

9. Performance Indicators for Community Capacity Model

10. Degrees of Engagement

11. Be engaged with the military community rather than apart from it Know the communities within the community, i.e. military families Value the importance of fostering connections Reject the status quo in favour of bold approaches Be committed to intentionally addressing military family issues Give priority to building and sustaining community capacity Embrace supporting informal networks as a formal network goal Allow desired results to provide guidance to activities Be outreach-oriented Work to develop partnerships with military entities Develop partnerships with community agencies around military family issues Define community members as partners and assets rather than clients and service beneficiaries Engaged Community Partners: Characteristics

12. Stages of Partnership Development Stephen M. Dent - Partnering Intelligence: Creating Value for Your Business by Building Strong Alliances 1. Assessing: The goal is to determine where the company stands today, and where it wants to go. This internal assessment will help you decide if you need partners to achieve your goals. Assessment should include both the company's vision/culture and material needs like strategy, products & services. 2. Exploring: Brainstorm a list of potential partners. Compare your needs to the services a partner could provide. When you talk to potential partners, find out what their needs are, and how your organization could fulfill them. Compare the vision/culture of your potential partner with your own. 3. Initiating: Involve key leadership in partnership building. Agree to partner first in a small way on an initial joint project. Evaluate your compatibility on this project. 4. Committing: Solidify your future vision and plans with your partner. Share information and resources.

13. Community Development Tactical: Strategic Approach: • Raise the awareness and knowledge among community service providers, and all levels of government, about the unique stressors inherent with the military family lifestyle, and to increase their level of shared responsibility and the willingness to enhance their programs and services • Provide a central point of contact regarding CE activitiesfor network partners • Identify and engage key partners for capacity building • Craft messaging • General vs Specific • Identify and engage key partners for capacity building • Establish champions and an action team in each community • Facilitate implementation of priority actions • Monitor and evaluate outcomes

14. Formal Networks – Community Mapping 1. Identifying: listing relevant groups, organizations, and people 2. Analyzing: understanding community partner perspectives and interests 3. Mapping: visualizing relationships to objectives and other organizations 4. Prioritizing: ranking stakeholder relevance and identifying common issues

15. Formulating your Value Proposition • Altruism • Visibility and footprint • Access to your resources, skills, knowledge • Access to your constituents-Skilled workforce • Access to your existing network • Personal connections • Other

16. Keys to Success • Clearly articulated goals, along with the outcomes to be achieved both by the lead agencies, and the regional and community networks. • Leadership – the process of developing partnerships and linkages, mobilizing communities and open communication – for project development and implementation. • Collaboration and network linkages within and among service providers and stakeholders to share best practices and to avoid duplication. • Infrastructure – systems support, skills, knowledge, and financial and staff resources – to enable partners to effectively work together to achieve health outcomes. • Development of partnerships and organizational capacity building • Well defined populations or communities for capacity building.

17. Keys to Success • Allowance for adequate time between the initiation of community capacity building and the desired change. • Building upon existing programs, experiences, and networks where possible • Basing decisions and actions on the best available evidence • Focusing on a small number of initiatives, which will have significant impact • Respecting the unique strengths, experience, expertise, and various levels of participation of organizations and individuals that make up the Alliance

18. Mission Critical…. • Creation of partnerships, collaborations and linkages • Mobilization and communication within the community • Development of vision, mission, and will of the community • The use of systems, organization, knowledge/skills, connectedness and resources • Build a culture that is amenable to partnering • Build vs Leverage • “What’s in it for them?” vs “What’s in it for us?” • Responsibilities, benefits and credit are all mutually shared • Military family challenges are too complex to be shouldered single-handedly by MFS/MFRCs • Relationships need to be stewarded/managed!

19. Culture (MFS/MFRC) Build vs Leverage “What’s in it for them?” vs “What’s in it for us?” Provinces Competing Priorities Managing Expectations Ability to Support multiple requests MFS Network Operationalized MH Dialogues, Leadership Circle, TPL Community Lead Programs/Services Leadership Driven! Challenges ? Successes ?