Guest blog from Luminary Bakery: collaborating on housing and employment support
We at Luminary are trusted friends of Orchards. We connect over our shared mission - a commitment to journeying with women, as they seek to find sustainable routes away from violence and abuse. We were founded within years of each other, launching ourselves into the women’s sector at a time when support for women was shrinking across the UK. That puts us in the same pool, we apply to the same funders, appeal to the same audience and speak into the same space. We could easily be described at competition, but let it be known: we are proud collaborators!
At Luminary - a social enterprise providing training, employment and community to survivors of gender-based violence, experiencing multiple disadvantages - our model has collaboration at its heart. We work alongside dozens of trusted referral partners - of which Orchards is one.
High caseloads and waiting lists for women’s organisations can often result in a game of tag when it comes to referrals - where support workers make a swift exit once they’ve referred her to another organisation. In these quick transitions, we lose the wisdom of the work that has gone before and the trusted strength in the relationship that has been built between a woman and her worker. In our model, we ask that our referral partners continue working with the woman they refer for the first six months of our two year programme. We get to glean the wisdom from the work that has gone before us and the specialism of the organisation, while consistent support continues for the women. This truly feels like a trauma informed transition.
For six months, the two workers journey with the woman towards her goal, committed to her safety & flourishing. Each working to the strength, Luminary will always focus on employability skills, while a partner like Orchards will provide safe housing and holistic support. To paint a current picture of how that plays out in practice: together the support workers play the Kamala Harris role, supporting the vision laid out by the woman they’re journeying with.
Given the stretch of our sector, collaboration often feels like swimming against the tide. Nonetheless we are passionately convinced that collaboration is not only the right thing to do, it’s the best thing to do. We can’t be all things to all people, collaborative working frees us up to work to our strengths & specialisms. We lean on partner organisations - ensuring women get the very best support from those who specialised in delivering it. Equally, collaboration supports our efforts to become richer, more inclusive organisations that reflect the diversity of our communities. Engaging in an open conversation with other organisations offers us diverse insights on the needs of different communities and opens up new understandings of how to reach marginalised groups. It invites us to partner with specialist BAME organisations, who can offer support that is nuanced to her experience as an ethnic minority.
Arguably, there’s never been a better time for collaboration. As we work through uncertainty, with reduced teams while colleagues self isolate - we need to lean on the skills and specialisms of the trusted organisations around us. Not duplicating work being delivered by peer organisations, not trying to fulfil a function where a specialist organisation can do it better. When organisations whose vision and mission align work together, we reap the fruit of collaboration in our budgets, our capacity and ultimately - in outcomes for women.
