Copy of Collaboration with Service Users

"If we could just share the outcome, that would be good. It would be fair. But always the service providers profit, not always the people."

"They plant the seed, but then give no water or light to grow."

[T]he good thing is, it is a small country, but big heart, and they

give us a big hug, like, you know, we find many ways, you know, to

contribute in other way, it was really a good opportunity, I always

say, we are lucky we are here. [...] We are trying, but I’m not sure

how far we’ve been gone. Nearly fifteen years now I’m here, we are

digging, we are digging. [...] So, we hope to pay back to New

Zealanders, you know, or the Kiwi, to pay them back the good thing

they have done to us.

Recommendations for practitioners:

1. Reflect on and address biased discourses

2. Give refugee-led initiatives room to grow

3. Start collaborations based on shared values

4. Regard collaboration as a process outside of funding schemes

5. Allow communities to own their solutions

6. Invest in trust:

make time, be reliable, be transparent, share resources

Inclusive stakeholder collaboration is considered good practice.

Why is it so difficult to collaborate, even when everybody works towards the same goals? (Suarez, 2011)

Does psychology have some answers?

Yep.

It is associated with

- faster organizational change (Lawrence, 1969)

- better program sustainability (Wellens & Jegers, 2011)

- better reputation (Suárez, 2011)

- and increased group creativity and innovatition (West,2001).

Collaborating with service users forms the basis of empowerment and capacity building (Stephens, 2008)

and works as a safeguard for ethically sound practice (Hugman, Pittaway & Bartolomei, 2011).

At the 2014 Regional Refugee Summit there was concurrence that the sector has trouble collaborating,

especially with former refugees.

Today's topics

1. Why is collaboration so difficult in the resettlement sector?

> Social Hierarchies and subconscious bias

2. How can these difficulties be overcome?

> Facilitating minority influence

How do disadvantaged minorities ever gain influence?

Minority Influence

How do resettlement discourses reflect social hierarchies?

Shyness

Too little time

Inconsistency

Intransparancy

Participation

vs.

Collaboration

Method

Distrust

Voluntarism as positive

vs.

Voluntarism as negative

"Out of principle people should be paid for their work. Voluntarism is often a stop gap for the failure of the state to provide sufficient support for refugees."

"We can't grow as an organisation when our best people are constantly hired into mainstream services."

Indebtedness

vs.

Rights

Social Dominance Theory (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001)

There are...

intrapersonal

intergroup

interpersonal

institutional

... often subconscious mechanisms that produce and maintain social hierarchy.

Social hierarchies in the resettlement sector:

- culture

- socioeconomic standard

- language ability

- formal education

- gender

- ethnicity

No wonder it's difficult!

Why is collaboration in the resettlement sector so difficult?

metacognition = thinking about thinking

Sarah Hahn

sarahhahnya@googlemail.com

Collaboration in the Resettlement Sector