Through our years of experience collaborating with clients, partners, staff, and service providers, we've learned that respectful collaborations are foundational to creating meaningful impact. These strong relationships rarely happen easily and quickly, working well with others takes effort and care. By investing time upfront in building solid working relationships, we can better set our projects up for success and navigate any sticky situations that may emerge down the line with more ease. With all this in mind, we’ve developed a set of Collaboration Principles that guide how we engage with others. We share these with our clients and ecosystem members to start an ongoing conversation about our collective work. These principles aren’t set in stone; they’re living guidelines that grow and evolve as we learn from each other and those we serve.
Collaboration Principles
Here’s a look at our Collaboration Principles and why they are foundational to how we work:
Respect: Recognizing the Value in Every Perspective
Respect is the cornerstone of our work. We recognize and honor the diversity of perspectives and experiences that each person brings to the table. This respect shows up in many ways: in how we communicate, in how we trust each other’s expertise, and in our respect for everyone’s time and contributions. By practicing respect, we build trust and create a space where everyone can bring their whole selves into the collaboration.
Intention: Building Up, Not Breaking Down
Collaboration isn’t always easy, and challenging moments are inevitable. When they arise, we approach them with a commitment to build up rather than tear down. We believe that trusting collaboration leads to generative processes and better outcomes. If something isn’t working for our partners, we want to know; we value feedback and are here to support our collaborators in achieving our shared goals.
Openness: Creating Space for Tough Insights
Our work often involves deep listening and engagement, which can sometimes reveal insights that are challenging to hear. We are committed to sharing these insights with openness and respect. We ask our collaborators to meet us with courage, too, as we engage in honest conversations that may require us to think differently. It’s this openness that allows us to work toward meaningful change.
Relationality: Centering People and Communities
We know that doing meaningful work is possible when we centre people and communities. As a foundation for creating successful outcomes in our work, we prioritize people first to build respectful engagement processes. It helps us shape processes that are equitable and impactful. In centering communities, we make sure that our work is grounded in real needs and fosters genuine engagement.
Adaptability: Being Open to Change
One thing we know for sure is that plans can change. Our approach is responsive. We are open to evolving our processes when it best serves the work. When small changes along the way are needed, we prioritize leading with trust and delivering value in a way that both honours our scope of work and meets evolving needs.
Accountability: Owning Our Actions and Impact
We commit to being present and responsive in our work, showing up fully for our partners and the communities we serve. We also acknowledge that intent does not outweigh impact; if our actions cause harm, we take responsibility and work to address it. Accountability keeps us grounded in our shared purpose and allows us to build trust over time.
Care: Nurturing Well-being through Equity and Anti-Oppression
Care is an essential part of how we collaborate. We practice care by honoring everyone’s needs, respecting boundaries, and grounding our work in principles of equity and anti-oppression. This isn’t just about self-care; it’s about community care. It’s about making sure that everyone involved feels safe, respected, and empowered to participate fully in our work together.
Forever Learning
These principles aren’t static—they’re intended to grow with us as we continue to learn from each project, partner, and community. We invite feedback from those we work with to refine and expand our principles, as we know that our understanding of collaboration will continue to deepen. Let us know what you think, what resonates with you, and where you see opportunities for us to grow. Working together, we can build a foundation of trust, equity, and shared purpose that makes real impact possible.