“Residents think that the school should handle the literacy problem, but the school feels it needs the support and involvement of the community.” – Educator during Consultation

“You can only partner with people who partner back. There is a need to share resources, build on partnerships, and develop synergy. We need to make the best use of limited funding. Most people think it is the government that is responsible for the cost, but we don’t agree.” – Learning Center Representative during Consultation

• The government representatives we spoke with cited confidentiality requirements as the biggest barrier to inter-agency collaboration.

• Time is one of the greatest barriers to partnership building. Relationships and networking are hugely time-consuming. Many of the people we talked to affirmed the value of collaboration – but said they just have too much “on their plates”, and “so does everyone else”.

• Provincial ministries need to cooperate and coordinate their interventions more; however, because there are no incentives for them to do that, it doesn’t happen.

• Trust is a significant issue related to collaboration and partnership. In many cases, the relationships that do work are informal working ones where trust has been built up between individuals over time. Formal partnerships don’t work as well because territorial attitudes come out.

• In a number of regions of the province, rivalries exist between communities that are closely situated. One can be seen to be a “government town” that has all the government offices through which most of the available funding is churned back into that community. Another might be seen as the larger center where all the economic investment takes place – drawing all the infrastructural resources away from nearby, smaller communities

• Rivalries and competition also exist among service providers. In some communities colleges, School Districts, and Community Skills Centers all vie for the same students – rather than carving out their respective niches and working together.

• Many community groups are competing with one another for the same funding.

What It Looks Like When It Happens…

“Action needs to occur in schools, families, neighbourhoods, community organizations, workplaces, government agencies … No one can successfully take on literacy challenges alone.” – Report on Literacy Practitioner and Learner Visioning Conference

• Collaboration and partnerships can take many forms. The following is not intended to serve as a comprehensive catalogue of partnerships throughout the province, but it describes some of the countless examples we encountered during the consultation.