Partnerships: Organizations working together to do good
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There is no substitute for what can be accomplished when organizations with a variety of skills and resources collaborate toward a common mission. Last week, that's exactly what happened when the Circles Campaign and Parkersburg City Councilwoman Wendy Tuck hosted a gathering of organizations that help those who are having challenges with housing. Before the event had even begun, Circles Campaign Executive Director Lisa Doyle-Parsons was able to connect with a representative of the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness to find a program that might help a couple at risk of being evicted.
"By having all these people in the same space together, we were able to find an organization that could help," Doyle-Parsons said.
Representatives of WVCEH, the Family Crisis Intervention Center, Westbrook Health Services, the City of Parkersburg, the Children's Home Society of West Virginia and more offered reports that showed far more than the originally hoped-for 50 families had been helped since the campaign kicked off.
"We have just cracked 275, people," Tuck said.
Tuck is right to understand the value in the campaign was not it swooping in with a brand new way to assist, but rather to draw attention to the many ways in which organizations in our communities can help.
As they compared notes Tuck said service providers became aware of all the options available and how they could work together to make a dent in the problem.
"People made partnerships," she said.
"It's created more resources for us to tap into ... more knowledge as to who can help with what," said Rachel Elliott, housing counselor with Consumer Credit Counseling.
Shared knowledge, shared resources, new ideas tossed around … it is encouraging to know Tuck and Doyle-Parsons intend to keep up such meetings. Working together, the good these groups were already doing for local residents can only grow.