History

Community Partnership of the Ozarks, Inc. was incorporated in 1998, combining the initiatives begun by Ozarks Fighting Back (OFB) in 1990 and the Community Task Force in 1993. Located in the heart of downtown Springfield, Missouri, the work of Community Partnership encompasses 21 counties in Southwest Missouri.

The Community Partnership Board of Directors acts as the governing body, while the OFB board oversees programming efforts related to substance abuse and violence. The Partnership acts as the community impact affiliate for United Way of the Ozarks.

Our founding organization, OFB, was an initiative dedicated to reducing substance abuse, particularly among young people. However, it quickly became clear that one could not build strong communities by focusing on substance abuse in isolation. Rather, a single mom - perhaps a victim of family violence - who begins to choose substances in an effort to cope, needs a GED to get a job, transportation to get there, daycare for her children, affordable housing to allow her to leave a negative situation, and support from her neighbors, is impacted on so many fronts. Indeed, domestic violence, poverty, a lack of health care, education, and parenting skills, to name a few, are inextricably linked to substance abuse.

The Community Task Force, through the Collaborative Initiative, included collaboratives addressing education, health, transportation, environment and faith, and were focused on developing partnerships composed of grass roots citizens and community leaders who worked diligently to identify gaps and work on solutions to address those gaps.

By combining these two groups, the hard work of building strong communities could be done using a holistic approach with a greater chance of achieving positive outcomes.

Thus, CPO was born in 1998, and our work encompasses many program areas, all dedicated to building strong, safe, vibrant communities filled with productive, resilient, healthy citizens. Much of our work focuses on building partnerships, as we cannot achieve measurable results without extensive collaboration with others. Our partnerships with both individuals and agencies serve as a link with other organizations and community interests, building a network of collaborators who can focus on specific areas of community need.

  • Community Partnership is well positioned to help solve community problems by bringing people together to achieve what no one agency could have done.
  • Community Partnership is structured in such a manner so as to be able to deliver quick, innovative and responsible responses to pressing community issues and needs.
  • As stated by one of our "founding fathers," Charlie O'Reilly of O'Reilly Auto Parts, "Resources are so limited…our communities must work to grow and coordinate and focus their efforts to improve the lives of those who need help – Community Partnership is leading this effort."

Not only are these collaborations, whether they be in the form of grants, management, service delivery, capacity building, or neighborhood/community initiatives effective in problem identification and solution development, but they enable us to leverage funds to enhance the federal, state and private dollars the Partnership receives. In 2007 alone, for every Caring Community (a state funded program of the Partnership) dollar received, an additional $13.60 was leveraged! That is an incredible return on investment that allows us to stretch our dollars even further to achieve positive outcomes.

Since its beginning, funding has been primarily through federal and state grants and contracts but, just as we have changed and evolved over the years, so too must our funding sources. In response to a decrease in these traditional funding sources, we must now look to private dollars to help us sustain the crucial work of the Partnership. In addition to soliciting donations, we began in 2007 to market our extensive line of prevention materials that have been developed to meet the needs of our communities. Visit www.cafeprevention.com to learn more. Likewise, our staff are available to provide trainings and consultations on a wide array of subjects – all designed to help others strengthen their communities.

As stated by the Aspen Institute, "The real importance of 'living in a community' is that people – and groups of people – develop the ways and means to care for each other, to nurture the talents that enhance the quality of community life, and tackle the problems that threaten the community and the opportunities which can help it." With a strong history of, and belief in, collaboration and measurable outcomes, Community Partnership looks forward to the successes of the coming years.