Why the Center Exists
Solving today's hardest challenges takes people and organizations willing to work together — but trust, skill, and a culture of collaboration have to be built, on purpose, over time.
For more than two decades, HDP's work in Harney County has supported community-driven, trust-based collaboration to solve complex ecological, economic, and social challenges. The Collaboration Center builds directly on that track record.
Demand for HDP's collaborative knowledge has outgrown what the organization can provide on its own. The Collaboration Center provides a permanent home in Eastern Oregon where people can learn how collaboration works, practice it, and carry it back to their own communities.
Mission & Vision
Mission
A regional hub for learning, connecting, and practicing collaboration — where people experience how collaboration works firsthand and return to their communities equipped to lead their own collective efforts.
Vision
A future where collaboration is the default way of working — where people and organizations have the relationships, trust, skills, and culture to solve complex challenges together.
Governance & Structure
HDP Board of Directors
↓
HDP Executive Director
↓
Collaboration Center Director
The Collaboration Center is housed within HDP, aligned with HDP's mission, and governed by the HDP Board. The Collaboration Center Director reports to the HDP Executive Director. Over time, the center will grow its own staffing and operational capacity while remaining part of HDP's organizational structure.
Guiding Principles
Collaboration as a cultivated skill
Collaboration is often undervalued or underutilized by public agencies and others. The HDP Collaboration Center bridges the gap between formal institutions and community-based collaboration by modeling and teaching collaborative approaches.
Credibility through continuity
Though a new program, the HDP Collaboration Center is an expansion of HDP's proven work — established work in a new place with new tools to share.
Learning grounded in lived experience
HDP staff, longtime participants, and experienced collaborators serve as educators, mentors, and ambassadors for collaborative practice.
Advocacy for collaboration
The HDP Collaboration Center develops curricula and resources that help others understand, value, and advocate for collaborative approaches, with a focus on proactive, long-term relationship building.
