Many young people, particularly those facing tough realities, live in families and communities with complex needs. Our public services and frontline workers are under pressure to provide person-centred responses in partnership with families and communities, that take account of the voices of the people they are there to serve. These are complex partnership systems with a multitude of barriers, boundaries and power dynamics built up, at times, over decades.

Columba 1400 is increasingly being asked to support such community partnerships with creating the enabling conditions for change. We create a space for dialogue and reflection between frontline workers and communities and encourage human interactions that break down these deep routed systems and create new pathways for working together underpinned by values. Examples of such partnerships, which tend to evolve over multiple years include:

• Family Wellbeing Partnership (Clackmannanshire)
• What Matters 2U (East Ayrshire, Dundee, Clackmannanshire)
• Dundee Pathfinders

Through these we help families flourish by giving them time and space to uncover their values, working with a powerful community of fellow parents and carers. Parents get the chance to “be the change” in their own life but also create change for their young people and community.