4 March 2011
Working in partnership is like having a dance partner – you need someone who wants to do the same dance, moves in time with you and complements your skills. If you want to improve, though, you need a partner who is more experienced and will teach you some new steps. No point dancing with someone who is worse than you: they will only tread on your toes and drop you at an inopportune moment. Which hurts.
This week we have moved our partnership working to another level, a sort of dance card of steps and moves with both familiar and new partners. Our CITR campaign (see CITR campaign page) is gaining momentum, a foxtrot: fast, effective steps – but hard. We are working with members and a range of stakeholders to ensure our voice is heard at the highest level. New partners include ACEVO, the Forum for Private Business and MPs who attended our event at the House of Commons this week and also pledged support. This is really good news for us and increases our chances of success exponentially.
RBS have long been partners of the cdfa, and this week we announced a programme with them which will take our performance framework, Change Matters, to the next level (see cdfa press release) as it includes sponsorship of CDFI assessments in addition to our annual conference. We used to waltz with them – now it’s a jive. Much more exciting than before.
The House of Commons event this week launched a new kind of dance for the cdfa and its members: a sort of paso-doble – quick steps with speed, flair and energy. It is OurBnk (see cdfa press release), an innovative online platform for members to reach borrowers more quickly and efficiently than ever before. It will harness the power of the internet to improve access to finance for borrowers throughout the UK and ensure that CDFIs create lasting wealth in every disadvantaged community throughout the UK. To do this, the OurBnk team have been teaching us a whole range of new steps and bringing a completely new dimension to our work and raising our game – they are also making it a whole lot more fun too.
So with all these partners, I might just get on to Strictly one day!
