Practising Positive Partnerships in the Ethnic and Multicultural Aged Care Sector Networking, Coordinating, Cooperating, Collaborating? Dr Irene Bouzo Senior Policy Officer Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria 19 September 2013

Outline 1.About ECCV 2.About ECCV/Monash University Project 3.Practising Positive Partnerships Model 4.Partnership Continuum 5.Good examples 6.Resources

About ECCV 200 members Established in 1975 A peak advocacy organisation We lobby all levels of government The voice of Victoria’s migrants and refugees

The ECCV/Monash University partnerships research project The aims explore the experiences of partnerships in the ethnic aged care sector assist ethnic and multicultural aged care organisations to establish positive collaboration strengthen service delivery and access to services for older people from CALD backgrounds “If I touch you is that a partnership?

Practising Positive Partnerships Model “You can’t do it by yourself… so you have to work with others.” “It’s the geography... limited funds… there’s a lot of work to do...”

1. External Influences Government policies and resources can restrict or support “Natural formation of partnerships” “Perhaps if we think a bit more like-mindedly…we can be a bit more effective in working together”

2. Trusting Relationships Trust promotes strong relationships Time, effort and commitment maintains partnerships Compatible personality styles, sharing common goals, exchanging information foster trust “I’ve just been invited to participate after all those years…” “We found it easy to because we’ve done the back work”

3. Professional Capacity Drivers in promoting and sustaining partnerships are a person’s: Professionalism Commitment Enthusiasm Passion Values “You're not going to work with someone who you think can’t deliver...” Some people are really interested in what we’re trying to achieve so you can tell they’re enthusiastic about the common goal.”

4. Organisational Capacity and Unequal Power Smaller ethno-specific org’s have limited resources Juggle service delivery and admin tasks Restricts staff at meetings Disadvantaged in decision making Larger groups have time, resources, staff “They had the final say about what we can do and where we can go…they would take our advice but the final say was theirs”

5. Ideal Partnership Checklist Has our partnership project established these at the project outset? Equal spread of obligations and responsibilities Equal power and financial responsibility Shared acknowledgment of expertise Equal balance of inputs and outputs Shared aims and shared workload Shared ownership

Himmelmann’s Partnership Continuum (2001) A common gaol Networking = exchange information Coordinating = info exchange = altering activities Cooperating = info exchange + activities + sharing resources Collaborating = info exchange + activities + resources + willingness to enhance capacity of the other organisation

A Productive Partnership Journey – ECCV & PCV Networking Meetings, AGMs Coordinating ECCV position papers PCV CALD Strategy Cooperating Joint Golden years magazine Presentations; joint forums Collaborating Joint strategic policy directions, joint resources Equal partnership sustainable partnership

Resources Practising Positive Partnerships in the Ethnic and Multicultural Aged Care Sector: Networking, Coordinating, Cooperating, Collaborating? Full report and Executive summary And Golden Years issue 103 December VCOSS Partnership Practice Guides 1, 2 and 3 VicHealth Partnerships Analysis Tool

Practising Positive Partnerships in Ethnic Aged Care It’s the right thing to do It’s a good thing to do It works well