Working With a Family Service Agency

A neighbourhood group and a family service agency can work together without merging. The group keeps its own aim and its own record; the agency keeps its own cases and its own confidentiality rules. What makes this work is a short written agreement reached before the first joint meeting, not after it.

A private non-profit such as Family Service of Central Indiana works to preserve and strengthen families in times of crisis, change and growth. That sentence is a useful starting point for any group drafting its own terms, because it names both the work and the limit: the agency serves families, not campaigns.

Agree who speaks for whom before the meeting

Write two columns on one sheet of paper. In the left column, put the names of the people who may speak for the group. In the right column, put the names of the people who may speak for the agency. Two names on each side is usually enough. A third name on either side is a backup, not a second voice.

Decide in advance what each side may say in public. A group spokesperson can describe the group's own position, its events and its membership numbers. An agency spokesperson can describe its services in general terms and its public funding. Neither spokesperson answers a question that belongs to the other side. If a reporter asks the group about a specific case, the group spokesperson says the agency handles case questions and gives the agency's public phone number.

Name one person on each side to exchange agendas three days before the meeting. This is the step most groups skip, and it is the step that prevents surprises. An agenda that arrives the morning of the meeting is not an agenda; it is a notification.

Which details never enter the minutes?

Minutes record decisions, not people. Keep names of service users out of the minutes entirely, including first names, initials and street names. Keep the names of agency staff below the director level out as well, unless that person spoke in public and agreed to be named.

Leave out anything a family told the agency in confidence. Leave out medical details, immigration status, court dates and the names of children. Leave out the amount of any individual's bill or debt. Leave out the address of any shelter or safe house.

Minutes may record the number of people served in a programme, the number of sessions held, and the amount of a public grant. Numbers at that level are already public in most agency reports. A figure that identifies one household is not.

Write one line at the top of every set of minutes: "Case details are held by the agency and are not recorded here." That line protects the group as much as the family. If a case later becomes public through another route, the group's own record shows that it never held the details.

How does the group keep its own record?

The group keeps a separate file, and it keeps it in its own hands. Do not accept a shared drive controlled by the agency, and do not let the agency hold the only copy of the group's attendance sheets or sign-in forms.

Keep four things in the group's file. First, the signed terms of cooperation, with the date at the top. Second, the group's own minutes, written by the group's own secretary. Third, a one-page log of joint meetings: date, place, who attended from each side, and what was decided. Fourth, copies of anything the group published about the joint work.

Store the file in two places. One paper copy stays with the group's secretary. One digital copy stays with a second officer. Review the file at the end of each quarter, on a fixed date, so the review does not depend on anyone remembering.

What the agency can publish, and what the group can publish

Ask the agency, in writing, which of its materials the group may quote. Most agencies publish annual reports, service descriptions and general statistics. Those are safe to quote with the agency's name attached.

Ask the agency to confirm, in writing, that it will not publish the group's name in a fundraising appeal without permission. This is a common source of friction. A group that appears in an appeal it did not approve can lose the trust of its own members, who may not want their names linked to a social service agency.

Agree on one rule for photographs. No photograph taken at a joint event shows a service user's face unless that person signed a release. Group members who agree to be photographed sign the same release. Keep the releases with the group's file, not with the agency's.

Set the terms for the first joint meeting

Hold the first joint meeting at a neutral place, not at the agency and not at a member's home. A public library meeting room or a church hall works. Book it for ninety minutes and put the end time on the agenda.

Open with the terms of cooperation. Read the four or five lines aloud and ask both sides to accept them on the record. This takes ten minutes and settles most later disputes.

Then take two items only. One item the group brings, one item the agency brings. A first meeting with six items produces no decisions. A first meeting with two produces two.

Close by naming the date of the next meeting and the person who will send the agenda. Write both on the sheet before anyone leaves the room.

Keep the group's aim visible

A joint project can drift. The group starts with a housing question and ends up staffing an agency committee. Guard against this with one habit: at the end of every joint meeting, read the group's own statement of purpose aloud. It takes one minute. If the joint work no longer serves that statement, the group says so at the next meeting, not a year later.

Review the terms of cooperation once a year, in the same month each year. Change what needs changing, sign the new version, and file the old one. A group that keeps its own record and its own aim can work with an agency for years without becoming part of it.