The president of the Friends of Mill Creek (FoMC) along with a panel of members and partners, had the opportunity of presenting at the annual Polivery Conference held in Toronto on Oct. 24.
The Polivery conference is hosted by the Provinces Policy Innovation and Leadership (PIL) Secretariat each year for up to 250 delegates.
This year’s conference focused on partnerships and was held of Queen’s Park.
The purpose of the conference was to offer an opportunity to bring policy and delivery professionals together in an open forum to:
– learn about innovative partnerships across diverse sectors;
– seek new ideas and bold advice from non-traditional partners;
– explore practical issues, tools and approaches for building and maintaining successful partnerships; and
– discuss untapped collaborative opportunities to bridge the divide between expansive mandates and persistent fiscal constraints.
A common theme among presenters was the importance of building and maintaining trust among partners. As an organization celebrating 15 years of building trust between unlikely partners and managing limited resources, the lessons learned and practices used by the Friends of Mill Creek were a good fit for the theme.
Background:
The Friends of Mill Creek was created following the adoption of the Mill Creek Sub Watershed Study by the Township of Puslinch.
The purpose of the Friends of Mill Creek was to allow the community to be involved in the implementation of many of the studies recommendations. To achieve this the group has built relationships with nearly 50 partners from a variety of sectors based on mutual respect and trust. Thanks to these partnerships, the FoMC was able to create its own Stewardship Ranger Program.
This program allows the FoMC to hire a crew of 4 rangers each summer and put them to work in the creek.
After 10 years of operation, nearly 40 local youths have had the opportunity to work on the creek and with environmental professionals from a variety of backgrounds.
What are the elements that make the partnerships last?
According to the president of the FoMC, Brad Whitcombe the first rule is “we leave the baggage at the door”. To help with this process there are several practices that we have adopted over time to ensure that our actions continue to build trust among partners. These include choosing programs that benefit the creek, no special treatment for participants, on involvement in land use, licensing or permitting applications.
FoMC is a post decision group that works with willing land owners, the conference heard.
