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·	From Theory To Practice

Partnership is at the core of the Strategic Initiatives program. The program design set up the framework for public sector partnerships between federal and provincial governments: the federal government provided direct funding for programs and services through cost-sharing innovative programs developed at the provincial/territorial level. However, in many Initiatives, partnerships extended well beyond the two levels of government, to include municipal governments, communities and the private sector.

The importance of these partnerships was highlighted in a number of formative evaluations. On a general note, the evaluation of the Taking Charge! Initiative in Manitoba suggests that this specific Initiative and other Strategic Initiatives were modelled on the American Job Training Partnership Act. This Act was based on the idea that the partnership approach, particularly involving the private sector, was the most effective way to create training and employment opportunities for individuals facing, or at risk of facing, long term dependence on government assistance.

4.1 Range of Partnerships

The formative evaluations, in noting the importance of partnerships, noted the strengths which each partner brings to the partnership. For example, the evaluation of Ontario jobLink highlighted the roles of different partners. HRDC’s experience in employment counselling was a useful resource provided to provincial and municipal staff serving social assistance recipient clients. Community-level partners, on the other hand, made an important contribution to the understanding of the needs and readiness of the client population.

4.1.1 Public Sector Partnerships

The overall mid-term review of the Strategic Initiatives notes three types of public sector partnerships:

• partnerships in which the provincial/territorial government takes the lead role in implementation of project activities, while the federal role is limited to cost-sharing and participation in joint management and evaluation committees;
• partnerships in which both federal and provincial/territorial governments play key, but distinct, roles in project implementation with activities undertaken by one partner being independent of those of the other partner; and
• partnerships in which both partners take a lead role in specific components of the program but with both levels of government involved in overall program planning and management¹.

The two levels of government brought different strengths to these partnerships. The federal government brought the opportunity through the program and its funding to test new approaches. It provided its human resource development delivery expertise, particularly in the areas of counselling and labour market information. It also contributed to the evaluation of these Initiatives. Evaluation was a critical element to the Strategic Initiatives program, particularly as Initiatives were to test new approaches to providing training and employment services.

The provincial and/or local governments (supported by community organisations), on the other hand, contributed their understanding of the local community — both in terms of the supply and demand for labour and client needs.

4.1.2 Community-based Organisations

The involvement of communities was critical to ensuring the effective delivery of client-oriented services in a number of Strategic Initiatives. Community organisations include a range of organisations which are able to link initiatives to the target population. They include non-profit organisations, economic development agencies, educational institutions and labour unions. Their involvement contributed to the appropriate identification of local needs and was particularly important in those Initiatives which provided support services to clients, such as:

• the evaluation of the Ready to Learn project (Prince Edward Island) noted the need to establish partnerships in order to develop local community support for the program and develop appropriate project designs;
• the evaluation of Ontario jobLink noted the importance of communities in the development and implementation of activities. This facilitates the identification of service gaps, and the building of community ownership. However, the evaluation also notes that there are pitfalls in community involvement. The process must be (and be perceived to be) open and fair. Without this, resentment can build up. On-going communication with communities — for example, through local advisory committees — is important;
• the two child care support programs in British Columbia — the Improved Access to Child Care and Supported Child Care projects — were community-based initiatives and the involvement, from the very early stages, of communities in their design and development was critical to accurately assess needs, provide adequate information and build “buy-in”.

4.1.3 Private Sector Partnerships

Given the nature of the Strategic Initiatives and their focus on ensuring that clients meet their income requirements through labour force attachment and not government assistance, it is clearly important to involve the private sector in both the design and implementation of Initiatives. This was reflected in several Initiatives in which private sector involvement was deemed to be positive, including:

• activities in the Newfoundland Student Employment Opportunities Program (SEOP) and Graduate Employment/Self-Employment Opportunities Program were linked to the province’s strategic economic development plans to provide meaningful work activities which support local and regional business growth sectors. These links are important to reduce the risk of creating jobs with program support that would have been created even without program support, and to increase the chances that job opportunities go to clients targeted by the program;
• partnership was an especially important element in the development and delivery of Enterprise Development Option of the Nova Scotia Compass program. Employers viewed the program as a partnership between themselves, the client and government agencies;
• the involvement of the private sector in the British Columbia Community Skills Centres (CSC) created more awareness at the local level of the importance of life-long educational and skills upgrading. Effective Community Skills Centres reflected a strong entrepreneurial bent in their management, or a business/industry base receptive to the training services the Community Skills Centres could provide. Those that were less effective tended to be early in their development, lacking local industry leaders on their board, or not fully committed to the partnership idea.

The importance of private sector involvement is also reflected in the evaluation findings for Initiatives in which private sector partnership was not as strong:

• in the Student Work and Service Program (Newfoundland) employers in both private sector and community organisations were not included in the program partnerships. This would have limited the extent to which the program assists with the school to work transition;
• the evaluation of Nova Scotia Links indicates that job placement programs should respond to both employer and participant needs. Students need career-related experience with a potential for long term sustainability and growth. Business partners need to be involved in developing training modules that provide realistic employment experiences to enhance school to work transition;
• the failure to establish effective partnerships with the private sector in the Ready to Learn program (Prince Edward Island) contributed to weaknesses in the program, notably in a failure to generate career-related summer job placements. Job placement was such an important part of the program and more attention should have been given to preparing for job placement activities;
• the evaluation of the Taking Charge! program (Manitoba) notes that partnerships with business were important but weak. Representation from business on the program centre Board or the establishment of a business advisory council could contribute to improving the job placement program.

Overwhelmingly, Strategic Initiatives evaluations reflected the importance of partnerships, either by demonstrating at least preliminary positive results of Initiatives or highlighting the weaknesses which Initiatives faced when there were inadequate partnerships. However, as will be seen in the following sections, those partnerships varied considerably and each type of partnership brings with it specific challenges.

4.2 Types of Partnerships

The Choice and Opportunities program evaluation (Prince Edward Island) provided an interesting list of the key elements that make up an effective partnership. Information from a literature review and the evaluation interviews suggests that an effective partnership should include such things as:

• a shared vision, the ability to share strengths and resources, and the capacity to support each other in pursuit of the project’s objective;
• frequent and honest communications, respect for confidentiality, and the development of trust between partners;
• a willingness to share responsibility and power; and
• the ability to acknowledge and accept differences, develop on-going team building efforts and skills in conflict resolution.

By this definition, many partnerships implemented in Strategic Initiatives would not qualify as true, effective partnerships. Many did not involve, for example, sharing of resources. However, many Initiatives did involve other stakeholders in the design, funding, management and implementation of Initiatives — whether they be true partnerships or not.

All Initiatives involved the federal and provincial governments in, as a minimum, cost sharing arrangements. Other stakeholders were involved in different ways. For many, the involvement was as a collaborator rather than as a true partner, in that they did not share responsibility for program implementation. Others played a more significant role in co-management or joint delivery of services. Others had a contractual relationship with the programs through the third-party delivery of services.

4.2.1 Collaborations

True partnerships involve shared responsibility for program objectives. Beyond the joint federal/provincial funding of Initiatives, this was not the case in many Strategic Initiatives. However, most Initiatives did involve the establishment of working relationships between, or collaborations with, different partners for the design, development and implementation of activities. These partners may have either played an advisory role or participated in the delivery of program activities. However, they did not share responsibility for program funding and/or management.

Private sector employers have been involved as collaborators in Strategic Initiatives through providing work placements and on-site job training opportunities for participants. This occurred in Strategic Initiatives which addressed barriers to employment directly by providing work placements or on-the-job training — for example, the Newfoundland programs Graduate Employment/Self-Employment Program and Student Work and Services Program, the Nova Scotia programs Nova Scotia Links of Success Nova Scotia 2000 and components of Compass, the New Brunswick Job Corps, Prince Edward Island’s Ready to Learn program, Manitoba’s Taking Charge! program, the Integrated Training Centres for Youth in Alberta, and the Northwest Territories Investing in People program.

Collaborations also strengthen programs providing support services. For example, in the Assessment, Counselling and Referral Initiative (British Columbia) employers and agencies involved with community economic development were critical to program success as they provided key information inputs such as local labour market data.

Private sector partners participated in advisory capacities in programs such as:

• the Integrated Training Centre for Youth program (Alberta) in which private sector partners were members of the employer advisory committee; and
• the Nova Scotia Compass program in which partners participated on regional advisory or liaison committees.

4.2.2 Co-management and Delivery of Services

Some initiatives established co-management or joint service delivery between two or more levels of government. Some resulted in the co-location of service deliverers. Examples include:

• the focus of the “One Stop Access” component of the British Columbia Improved Access to Child Care program was on consolidation of provincial and community child care services, and on the co-location of Ministry financial assistance workers and licensing officers with provincial child care support program staff;
• in the Compass program in Nova Scotia, staff setting up work placements were co-located with municipal employment counsellors. Counsellors provided more effective services than they would if they had also to be responsible for securing work placements;
• the Ontario jobLink project put in place multi-service Resource Centres to provide training information, education and employment opportunities in local communities. All Centres involved partnerships with the municipal, provincial and federal governments. Some also involved community agencies. Government partnerships were more successfully implemented than those with community agencies. The tight time frames for the design and development of Centres limited the extent to which full co-location could be implemented;
• the Assessment, Counselling and Referral Initiative (British Columbia) involved partnership between the federal and provincial governments which featured delegation of joint planning, design, service delivery and accountability responsibilities to the government partners with equal opportunity for input by each partner;
• the Community Skills Centres (British Columbia) had community and private sector decision-making boards. Through joint program delivery, Community Skills Centres were able to develop a local learning culture which had not been present in many businesses or among many individuals in the labour force when the program was established.

It is expected that the co-management and integration of services will reduce overlap and duplication in the provision of services to client populations, and result in more efficient use of resources. However, the formative evaluations cannot yet reflect the extent to which this has occurred and/or contributed to improved services and outcomes for clients. This will be important to assess in the summative evaluations of the Strategic Initiatives. It is also important to note that this experimentation is not unique to Strategic Initiatives and has been carried out in other programs as well.

4.2.3 Third-party Delivery of Services/Contractual Relationships

Some Strategic Initiatives involved community and other organisations directly in the delivery of services to clients in a contractual relationship with other partners. These organisations, operating at arm’s-length from government, either offer services themselves or refer clients to other organisations and/or governments. Many Initiatives provided the opportunity for greater integration of programming and the co-location of services — a single window for accessing a range of services. For example:

• the Taking Charge! program (Manitoba) was delivered at a centre, providing a continuum of services, which is managed by a non-profit organisation with a board of directors selected by the community and the federal and provincial governments. These partnerships are very strong and offer the program important community insights. Non-profit organisations, private vocational trainers, and post-secondary institutions are actively involved in service delivery on a contractual, fee-for-service basis;
• the Integrated Training Centres for Youth (Alberta) are managed by non-profit organisations with provincially-managed contracts awarded to different agencies. For the most part, roles and relationships were clear and stakeholders were satisfied with the role and responsibilities as carried out;
• the Regional Delivery Models of the Improved Access to Child Care (British Columbia) program consolidated the delivery of child care services (including local planning, purchasing resources, training and workshops) under one umbrella organisation in each community;
• the evaluation of the British Columbia Labour Market Initiative noted that since non-profit organisations often do not have funds to bring to projects, a contractual relationship, rather than a true partnership, has to be created between the organisation and the funder. Often the organisation in the best position to identify the need was also the most appropriate choice to carry out the work to address the need. This may result in perceptions of conflict in contracting with organisations represented on advisory committees.

Initial evidence from the national mid-term review of Strategic Initiatives suggests that, in at least some Initiatives, third-party delivery mechanisms are effective vehicles for providing client- and community-oriented services, reducing duplication and improving participant access. However, whether this continues to be true, and the extent to which it contributes to improved outcomes for clients, remains to be seen in the summative evaluation².

4.3 Impact and Challenges of Partnerships

Some evaluations noted the challenges faced in implementing partnership. Initiatives in some provinces built on existing partnerships between the federal and provincial governments. For example, the evaluation of the Integrated Training Centres for Youth program (Alberta) noted that the program helped to strengthen and enhance existing partnerships established under other federal/provincial initiatives. In other provinces, the most significant contribution of the federal/ provincial government partnerships established for Strategic Initiatives may be realised in future programs. This partnership experience may have resulted in the establishment of infrastructure and/or networks which will be available for future programming. For example, the evaluation of the Saskatchewan Labour Market Information Initiative noted that partnerships are likely to be sustainable even if the specific projects do not continue. The high level of communication and information sharing will be maintained and that the partners will continue to work together as an permanent LMI advisory board or council.

There is limited information in the formative evaluations on the impacts of these partnerships. The strongest statements about the success of partnerships come from the Strategic Initiatives which focussed on improving support services for clients. Examples include the Labour Market Initiatives in both Saskatchewan and British Columbia; the Career Services program (Saskatchewan); the Assessment, Counselling and Referral program and the Community Skills Centres both in British Columbia.

4.3.1 Evolution of Partnerships

Some attempts at partnerships under the Strategic Initiatives suffered early in the program from not having the time to let partnerships emerge naturally in response to program objectives. In the early months of the program, federal and provincial officials scrambled to design programs which would respond to the partnership requirement of the Strategic Initiatives. Both levels of government, as well as partners from municipalities and community-level organisations, were identified early in the process as potential partners in programming. This happened in many cases before the service gaps and needs were identified. The “how” to address the issues (that is, through partnerships) preceded the identification of the “what” (that is, the program activities themselves).

A more natural evolution of the partnerships — based on the identification of program activities and, based on these, the identification of the partners needed to implement programs — would have resulted in more effective partnerships. The implications of not doing this were reflected in the evaluation of the Strategic Employment Opportunities Program (Newfoundland). In this program, a lack of clear agreement among the partners as to the role and objectives of the program resulted in weakness in program design and delivery and conflict among the partners. The importance of taking time to develop partnerships is also reflected in the evaluation of the Labour Market Information program (British Columbia). It noted that appropriate partnerships (including government, business, industry, and labour) should actively be sought but that they take time to build and that a clear definition of roles and responsibilities is needed.

4.3.2 Lack of Clarity on Objectives or Shared Vision

The result of this evolution of partnerships is often lack of clarity and/or shared vision with respect to program objectives. As a result, some partners spent considerable time identifying the general principles and approaches on which they could agree, rather than identifying ways to pool their expertise and resources to address a specific task. For example, although all partners in the Choice and Opportunities program (Prince Edward Island) are very committed to the project and its objectives, the lack of planning, definition and development of partner roles prior to the establishment of the partner committees led to these activities dominating the early work of the committees.

4.3.3 Resources Necessary to Support Partnership

When partnerships have not emerged naturally around common objectives and tasks, considerable resources are required to develop the partnership infrastructure to ensure that it works. The Student Work and Services Program evaluation (Newfoundland) noted that although initiatives with strong relevance and support from all parties can be successfully implemented even if the partners’ roles are not clearly defined, clear definition of roles is necessary for the program to continue. In Student Work and Services Program, individuals made strong personal efforts to assure the initial success of the program despite shortcomings in design and delivery. These individuals suggested that this level of effort could not be anticipated in future programs.

Similarly, the evaluation of the Choice and Opportunities program (Prince Edward Island) noted that additional resources and supports would be required to strengthen the partnerships. A facilitator could contribute to team building; a policy advisor could research policy implications and promote the development of a shared vision; and training and support should be provided to allow effective partnerships to emerge.

Other mechanisms to support partnership included joint committees and co-ordinators (Compass in Nova Scotia and Ontario jobLink); information exchange (Compass in Nova Scotia); and staff secondments (Taking Charge! in Manitoba).

Two evaluations noted that involving community organisations as partners in government initiatives has cost implications for the non-profit sector. The evaluation of the British Columbia Labour Market Initiative noted that the monetary needs of non-profit organisations need to be recognised since, without core funding, these organisations can not participate as full partners. Similarly, evaluation of the Saskatchewan Labour Market Initiative noted that the cost of the time which people spent on projects had to be acknowledged. Working Group members committed a significant amount of time in addition to their other job responsibilities.

4.4 Conclusion

Partnerships has been a key component of all Strategic Initiatives. By definition, federal and provincial governments have partnered through the cost-sharing of Initiatives. Other stakeholders, including community organisations and private sector partners, have also been involved. These stakeholders have been involved in a range of capacities — either as advisors or participants in programming; as co-managers of services or as third-party service deliverers. Many of the relationships are not, however, true partnerships since there is a lack of shared responsibility for program objectives.

Although there is as yet little information on the impact of the partnerships in terms of improving client services or outcomes, the formative evaluations suggest that partnerships — particularly with community organisations — have been successful. Partnerships with private sector organisations have, in general, been weaker but are, nonetheless, critical for programming to address training and employment needs of clients.

Once established, these partnerships are likely to continue after the end of Strategic Initiatives programming. This is particularly true of the federal/provincial partnerships which have positioned stakeholders for the development of labour market development agreements between the federal and provincial governments.