Building Partnerships from the Inside Out: Congreso’s Model for Service Integration

Abstract

Summary

This article describes how Congreso, a Philadelphia multiservice nonprofit serving the Latino community, recognized the strength of its service delivery model and community trust to lead community partnerships in multiplying educational opportunities for youth and adults. Historically, Congreso made high-quality human service delivery its core business. But as the organization grew and funding diversified, no one model clearly defined the organization’s service delivery across multiple programs. Congreso developed a service delivery model (Primary Client Management℠) to strengthen collaboration among 300+ employees working in 50+ diverse programs that would result in increased coordination and better service to participants enrolled in multiple services.

Congreso’s self-assessment also inevitably identified service and resource gaps that pointed to broader partnerships opportunities. Leading with its strength, Congreso used its trusted reputation in the community to introduce new partners who provide needed services Congreso could not offer efficiently alone.

The shift toward better internal service integration and broader-scale partnerships allowed Congreso to simultaneously strengthen and extend its “core business” —human services delivery—within multiple partnerships. As a result, Congreso provides human services to over 14,000 unique clients annually with a smaller budget than might be expected for a large, multiservice agency.