Case Studies and Resources

Starting in the early 2000s an array of social and human services agencies/organisations and advocacy groups with a state-wide remit began to meet on an occasional basis to talk about some of the issues and concerns they shared in their work areas. Over time, members noted the limitations of this ad hoc arrangement and sought a more organised, less sporadic process of communication and information sharing. 

Encouraged and facilitated by a core group of enthusiastic members, the main participating groups eventually banded together to convene a general assembly at which a decision was made to adopt a loose structure in the form of an interagency meeting. The interagency meeting was subsequently convened, occurring monthly on a rotational basis, with members agreeing to share responsibility for organising, promoting and chairing the event. The purpose of this meeting was not to change the way that participating organisations delivered their own services, but rather to enhance information sharing across the members to help with their individual work programs.  One of the key foci of the group’s deliberations was the sharing of a sufficient level of information about their services and clients in order to create agreed processes and mechanisms as the basis of a viable referral pathway between the individual participating agencies.  In this way, the emphasis was on supporting each others’ work while retaining their existing models of service provision.

The interagency meetings were the ‘main stay’ for the network, offering regular opportunities for sharing information and experiences. However, for many members the loose format and the short meeting times limited their ability to discuss, debate and thus advance key issues.

A second major deliverable from the ongoing interactions of the interagency meetings was the formation of an annual conference at which members could raise and explore common service issues and share new practices and models of operation, as well as raise new areas of concern or advance issues beyond the smaller groups. The members wanted the meetings and the annual conference subsequently organised to:

“… provide a flow of useful information about complementary work issues, shape local and inform local decision makers … and to be a vehicle to link organisations and individuals within local geographical areas”.  

Individual members and some organisations could point to a number of important accomplishments achieved through the annual conference (which was later shifted to a biannual event) including: a resulting referral pathway, access to new and relevant information sources to help with their service delivery, and the promotion of previously less prominent client group needs. Over time funding for the conference diminished and with little to no provision in place to self-finance the event the high energy around the conference dissipated. Interagency meetings, which did not require as much effort, continued and eventually merged with other interagency meetings.