Collaboration toward a common purpose
How building something from the ground up takes a collective effort
Every year, around this time, United Way Toronto and York Region host the annual CN Tower Climb. This year, my niece will be taking part in this great cause.
As part of her preparation, she set out to learn more about the improbable story of teamwork and collaboration behind this extraordinary structure.
Reportedly, it took 1,537 workers, operating 24 hours a day, five days a week for 40 months, to complete construction of the tower. This labour force included electricians, steel workers, crane operators, engineers and carpenters, among many others. Each team member, delivering on a particular task, contributed to what still stands as a testament to human achievement.
The story of the CN Tower and how it was built offers valuable insights into the promise of collaboration and teamwork. When that many people come together for a common purpose they can accomplish an astounding feat.
It is an especially important lesson for Toronto’s social service sector as it faces increasing pressure to do more with less.
At a time marked by greater competition for remaining resources and growing need in the community, more and more organizations realize that collaboration enhances the impact of their work toward achieving transformational change.
In much the same way, United Way also seeks to move the dial on some of our most pressing social issues by fostering a social service sector driven by a culture of collaboration.
The role United Way plays is best described as part preacher, part practitioner. The organization seeks to not only popularize the spirit of collective effort, but also make the necessary investments. An example of this is the CITY Leaders program and Community Hub model that set the stage for collaboration to flourish.
Early in my career, I had the opportunity to participate in the CITY Leaders program, which was an exciting opportunity to work along- side and learn from other emerging young leaders from various fields in Toronto. It was an immersive experience, driven by a multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving, that taught me to look at issues as systemic.
Soon I would come to rely on these lessons in my role as executive director of Youth LEAPS, a registered not-for-profit seeking to improve educational attainment outcomes for at-risk youth.
Located in Scarborough, Youth LEAPS operates out of the Dorset Park Hub, which includes several other service providers offering essential supports including health care, settlement, employment, child and seniors care.
At the hub, we recognize that community members — many facing multiple barriers, often access several services simultaneously, which bolstered the case for greater collaboration and offered a clear opportunity to better align our service delivery to achieve greater impact.
Working closely with hub partners meant we could better co-ordinate services, share resources, exchange knowledge and enhance engagement protocols, such as the referral and monitoring processes.
A great example of this is our Learn 2 Work Initiative where we work with social service, employment, and health-care partners to create a classroom-to-careers pathway for young people who are 18 to 29 years old, without their high school diploma, and receiving Ontario Works.
More so today than ever before, examples like Learn 2 Work can be found across our sector thanks to United Way’s investment in the development of young community leaders and the idea of collective problem solving and collaboration, imperative to achieving systemic change.
So while my niece looks ahead to her climb, we are offered a similar moment of reflection to look back as a sector and remember that through collective effort, we will go farther and accomplish more together than we could ever hope to achieve alone.