Come Together: The Importance of Collaboration in Providing Social Services

“Collaboration is a key part of the success of any organization, executed through a clearly defined vision and mission based on transparency and constant communication.”

Dinesh Paliwal

Delivering services and support to society’s most vulnerable citizens can be a challenging yet rewarding profession. Yet it is not without its challenges. With a large number of people needing services throughout the United States and a plethora of service providers working to meet their needs, it is often the case that overlaps occur and a number of these citizens fall through the cracks.

With so many providers and organizations working to provide services to those in need, it is of paramount importance that these entities can effectively communicate their progress and coordinate their efforts.

The Need for Effective Collaboration

The importance of effective collaboration in social work cannot be overstated when you look at the sheer number of people that need help. To paint the picture:

• Over 438,000 children are in foster care in the United States, according to the Administration for Children and Families’ 2017 report.
• The US Department of Housing and Urban Development states that over 554,000 people (or 0.17% of the population) are homeless on any given night in the United States.
• According to the US Department of Agriculture’s 2017 study, 40 million Americans (or 1 in 8) are “food insecure”.

These figures only represent a fraction of the people who require social services in this country, which illustrates the importance of service providers being able to liaise and collaborate with each other to expand their reach to as many people as possible.

There are a number of important benefits and incentives for such collaborations to be improved and expanded. These include:

Empowering the industry to make progress

One benefit of inter-organizational collaboration is the feeling of connectivity that arises. For any single client, there may be a need for multiple resources in order to fulfill their needs. If one person needs shelter, food, and employment, for example, service providers from those backgrounds could all consolidate their efforts and provide recommendations and resources to each other in order to help the client make considerable progress toward living a secure and fulfilled life.

Closing the gaps in communication that can arise

One of the hardest aspects of different organizations working with clients is that sometimes these efforts can overlap each other or, even worse, clients will remain unaided when one organization thinks the other is taking the lead. Fostering communication between service providers and organizations allows them to coordinate their efforts and verify that someone is taking care of the client’s needs. Averting communication breakdowns can have a positive impact on the ability to deliver adequate services to the client(s) in need.

Minimizing the number of people who fall through the cracks

Making sure every individual in need gets help is no easy undertaking. It is a task made infinitely harder, however, by a lack of inter-agency collaboration. Given the amount of people in the United States that are in dire need of services, it is supremely important that communication channels between service providers remain open and active. Open lines of communication can aid organizations in catching mistakes, focusing efforts on specific tasks and goals, and ensuring that people in need are not being left behind.

Promoting a “team mentality” between service providers

Every organization believes in its mission and strives to fulfill their goals. It is often the case in social service providing, however, that these missions and goals are often shared in principle by many different organizations throughout the industry. Therefore, opening up lines of effective collaborative communication can lead to organizations coordinating their efforts to achieve their goals, both shared and otherwise. This creates a “team mentality” in the industry that states “we will work together to positively impact those in our community that need help”.

Our team at the Good Grid believes that collaborative communication is one of the key ingredients to helping service providers and organizations provide aid to their clients and make a difference in their lives. Our state-of-the-art system allows service providers to not only connect with clients via our Find Good program, but also fosters connection with fellow service providers and organizations via our Social Hub, a social media platform dedicated to the service providing industry.

To learn more about the Good Grid, please visit our website here.