ABSTRACT
Social problems such as poverty, unemployment, and homelessness cut across a number of policy issues and service needs, thereby resisting traditional single-agency solutions. This chapter draws on information obtained from interviews with local Community Action agency leaders to discuss the types of collaborations Community Action agencies utilize. It presents a brief overview of the philosophy of Community Action, which, from the beginning, established collaboration as an imperative. The chapter addresses the types of collaborations Community Action agencies use and the role of Community Action agency leaders in facilitating, sustaining, and managing collaborations. It discusses the service-implementation collaborations and information-dissemination/problem-solving collaborations that involve a Community Action agency interacting with one or more other types of organizations. The chapter focuses on the collaborations within the Community Action network, which relate to Milward and Provan's community capacity-building network category.
