Shepparton Community Share
- Project: Shepparton Community Share: FamilyCare, ConnectGV, The Bridge Youth Service, Primary Care Connect
- Amount: $109,500 combined
- Year(s) Funded: 2015
Building capacity and collaboration among four Shepparton social service providers
In May 2015, HMSTrust trialled a capacity-building grants round in Shepparton, which resulted in 11 Community One-off Grants being awarded. Four of the grantees formed a cohort, each submitting a separate application, taking responsibility for a component of the innovative collective impact project. The initiative was incredibly successful and led to an ongoing collaborative relationship between the four agencies.
“Some of the most important positives are the simplest things – like having time and opportunity to talk to each other.” David Tennant, CEO, FamilyCare
The Shepparton Community Share agencies and their areas of activity are: ConnectGV, provider of disability services, reviewing information technology and communication needs across the partner agencies; Primary Care Connect, community health provider, investigating the potential for efficiencies in the ordering and management of essential services; The Bridge Youth Service, youth support provider, exploring opportunities to develop and enhance social media opportunities among the partners; and FamilyCare, regional provider of child and family services, facilitating the development and implementation of a framework.
Snapshot:
Objectives included:
- Engaging an independent facilitator to develop a governance model;
- Increasing efficiencies and improvements in essential support and back-office functions;
- Building collaboration between the partner agencies individually and as a group;
- Building relationships with key external stakeholders, including other community agencies, funding bodies and product and service providers in areas covered by the projects; and
- Documenting and evaluating the collaboration to capture learnings for the benefit of other agencies operating in Shepparton and in similar communities.
As a result of the success of this first collaboration, a further grant of $200,000 was awarded in 2018 to The Bridge Youth Service as the lead agency for a new joint initiative to create a culture and environment of continuous quality improvement (CQI), and to develop as leaders and innovators, both within and outside Shepparton.
FamilyCare www.familycare.net.au
Primary Care Connect www.primarycareconnect.com.au
The Bridge Youth Service www.thebridge.org.au
ConnectGV www.connectgv.com.au