The Collaborative Approach To Social Change

Oasis Center joined the Stand Together Foundation Campaign to capture acts of kindness church hub-site Pleasant Grove

To some collaboration may seem complex, but to the Oasis Center, nonprofits joining forces can mean bigger strides towards achieving the mission and fostering a better world.  

Community organizations working together on joint projects can make their programs and activities more effective and/or more efficient. 

Michael Lee, Executive Director of the Oasis Center said, “My mindset, in the moment of addressing COVID-19 and the civil unrest reaching its peak after the death of George Floyd, is that social change organizations need to come together, share their services, contacts and God-given “calling” to provide evidence-based, community-centric and measurables services to collectively address systematic aspects of historical social injustice. Our efforts in this arena predate both COVID-19 and the present civil unrest and call for policing and criminal justice reform.  To this end, Oasis Center and our partners to date have been developing a Dallas Social Justice Network.”

The Dallas Social Justice Network can really be defined by the definition of Social Justice – “a philosophical concept which holds that all people should have equal access to wealth, health, wellbeing, justice, and opportunity.”  A group of organizations with unique service offerings coming together to provide a holistic approach to transformation.  The collective approach is not unheard of in the nonprofit community, but certainly underutilized. 

The benefits to collaborations are significant, here are a few reasons to consider creating a collaborative partnership with other nonprofit organizations:

  • Budget Relief – Collaborating saves money by sharing resources, infrastructure, and administrative costs.
  • Creativity – Diverse talent from different organizations can help create new solutions to complex issues.
  • Efficiency – Joining forces offers a more hands-on deck to increase the capacity to get tasks done. 
  • Expansion – Collaboration allows different nonprofits to focus on different aspects of the same mission and better respond to complex issues.
You see, working in collaboration can increase impact. The idea of a unified voice can offer unique opportunities to influence key decision-makers and achieve significant change. Having a combined voice can be very powerful, however, research and strategy should precede jumping into a partnership. Collaboration may not be for every organization.

In future blogs, we will highlight some of the partnering social change organizations that comprise the DSJN.  

Stay Tuned!!!

Location: Oasis Center 1250 Majesty Dr, Dallas, TX 75247, USA

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