Thinking beyond the contract: A journey to collaborative community social work

Abstract

Social workers from two different Wellington-based community service providers, Newtown Union Health Service (NUHS) and St Vincent de Paul (SVDP) Wellington Area discuss their organisations and how they worked together to build an award-winning1 practice model in their community. Their reflection on their work raises important questions regarding our responsibilities and options to meet client needs in a heavily contracted funding environment and presents the learnings and challenges of their collaboration.