The third Health and Social Services (HSS) newsletter has various articles that refer to partnerships with community based organizations, community members and recipients of services. Webster’s dictionary defines partner as: “ally, associate, colleague, one who cooperates with another.” Or, partnerships as: “two or more persons each agree to furnish a part of the capital and labor for a business enterprise and by which each shares in some fixed proportion in profits and losses.”
I like the portions of the definition regarding ally and associate as it conveys the mutual benefit of people helping people. However, the terms of sharing in the profits or losses I’d replace with creating opportunities and investment in human capital. HSS is comprised of nine departments, employing approximately 160 employees with an annual budget exceeding $27 million. The employees are entrusted by the public to assure that public funds and related activities are furnished to build human capital. Did we intercede and build individual capacities, strengthen skills and abilities by diminishing barriers to successful employment, family reunification, independent living, or quality of life for our aging members?
HSS is consistently in the hiring mode as approximately six positions seem to match the never ending vacant/recruitment scenario. The challenge when consider partnerships and the impact on the people we serve is the quality of the service and the assurance that conventional knowledge of key services is maintained. For a small rural county, I’d like to compliment my staff on their abilities to exceed the conventional wisdom and strive toward innovative and creative options that better serve the public. Many new initiatives are under way and challenge our daily planning but we forge ahead with the desire to improve upon what we’ve done today. This is often best accomplished by working corroboratively with others, networking with community partners and treatting the people we serve with mutual respect.
