Citing a sharp rise in the Island’s social challenges, charities are responding with “unprecedented” collaboration, said Family Centre executive director Martha Dismont.With funding down, human service providers need to work fast, she said, to be “more preventive, to measure the outcomes of services, to reach the people and communities with the greatest needs” — as well as to push for change.Ms Dismont said a coordinated effort has been agreed between the Women’s Resource Centre, PRIDE Bermuda, the Family Intimacy Centre, Family Centre, and the Inter Agency Committee for Children and Families (IAC) .To measure the social impact, the Women’s Resource Centre is gathering information, according to executive director Elaine Williams.“We have taken on the leadership of an initiative that will be gathering the client outcome data from service partners working with women, children, and families,” she said.“The reason for gathering this data is to review it and identify the collective outcomes being achieved in Bermuda and our best opportunities for quality improvement.”The Women’s Resource Centre is helping partners by acting as a “coordinator of data collection and analyses”, she said, that will then be shared among agencies.Meanwhile, a Children’s Advocacy Agenda is to be made public by the IAC — a group designed to foster collaboration in the field of human service.Administrator Nadine Lapsley Dyer said the committee provides “best practice training and planning for social service agencies”.At a meeting last month, the IAC reviewed core issues effecting young people, and plans to release its conclusions soon, she said.Similarly, the Family Intimacy Centre is to host a meeting aimed at “the need for increased prevention efforts”, executive director Saadia Bean said.“Self care” for caregivers is also up for discussion.“Agency workers will discuss and explore solutions to signs of burnout, emotional and health issues related to job stress, especially during these challenging social times,” Ms Bean said.And charity PRIDE Bermuda is offering a “community mobilisation training programme”, facilitated by the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America (CADCA), to help drug-blighted neighbourhoods tackle crime and substance abuse.Executive director Judith Burgess said the CADCA model “helps communities to develop an organised plan with defined outcomes and a pathway for achieving them.“This is an ideal partner initiative to the other efforts as it encourages people to claim the needs and solutions within their neighbourhoods and to develop sustainable positive culture. The CADCA trainings are helping to identify and prepare leaders with clear priorities and their efforts will be integrated with the partner efforts over time.”The Family Centre, meanwhile, continues its collaboration with other agencies for North Hamilton’s Youth Development Zone.Ms Dismont said:”North Hamilton was partly chosen due to the presence of gang culture, violence and the frequency of abuse and neglect reports. It was also chosen due to the community strengths, and a readiness for positive action that exists there among residents.“The Youth Development Zone project is building a network of agencies, programmes, and residents, collaborating to support positive efforts that are already available and putting new norms in place wherever change is needed. The Youth Development Zone was designed with the latest research in mind, to achieve lasting, community-based change that supports healthy youth development.”The project started last year.Ms Dismont added that the partner agencies are looking for other initiatives wishing to join.“They believe that their efforts will be magnified through cooperation and coordination and they recognise that they can accomplish more together than they can accomplish working alone,” she said.Useful website: www.tfc.bm.