Why do we have interagencies?

How effective are community interagencies these days? Read some of the responses from a group of human services workers in the Illawarra region on how to make their local interagencies more effective.

Human services workers can have differing opinions on the subject of interagencies, ranging from dissatisfaction or 'burn-out' to optimistic expectations of collective lobbying.

This paper, developed by the Illawarra Forum, puts together opinion and suggestions that were collected in May 2005 via an email survey of 80 workers in various agencies.

The survey questions were:

• Why do you go to interagency meetings?
• What stops you going to interagency meetings?
• In your experience why do interagencies fail to be useful and effective?
• Should interagencies be used for advocacy and lobbying?
• If you answered Yes to the previous question, why should interagencies be used for advocacy and lobbying, and how should interagencies be used for advocacy and lobbying?
• What can we do to make interagencies useful and effective?

Of the twenty seven people who responded to the survey, twenty worked for non-government organisations, four worked for government departments and three worked for local government.

Respondents were unanimous in their expectation that interagencies should have a key role in advocacy and lobbying. Ideas on how to improve the effectiveness of interagencies included:

• Focussing on interagencies as tools for communication.
• Giving interagencies a purpose and ensuring members know what they can hope to get out of them.
• Setting goals and a structure so that interagencies have a purpose and not just a sociable get together chat.
• Having a designated (paid) worker to resource or coordinate the interagency
• Promoting interagencies as places for action as well as discussion.
• Providing opportunities for leadership and mentoring
• Having fewer interagencies generally.

Follow this link to The Illawarra Forum - Publications (pdf file - opens in new browser window)

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For further information

Contact	:	Illawarra Forum
Address	:	PO Box 53, Jamberoo NSW 2533
Phone	:	02 4236 1333
Fax	:	02 4236 0155

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http://www.illawarraforum.org.au