1. C OLLABORATION W ORKS ! 2012 Project SOAR/ORR Annual Workshop

2. CREW is a collaboration of Chicago- based Refugee Resettlement agencies and Mutual Aid Associations dedicated to finding sustainable employment for its participants.

3. CREW works with over 30 large employers throughout the Chicagoland area. CREW serves over 2,500 immigrants, refugees, political asylees, victims of trafficking and victims of other human rights abuses.

4. T HE H ISTORY OF CREW How it all started and why How CREW officially formed Timeline

5. M ISSION The mission of CREW as a collaborative is to improve employment opportunities for the refugee community of Chicago. CREW accomplishes this mission by: serving as a forum for best practice and resource sharing among CREW job developers, actively engaging employers through joint job development initiatives, increasing access to training and job improvement opportunities, networking and facilitating refugee access to broader community support and resources, promoting awareness of employment barriers for refugee job seekers, and advocating for collaboration among service providers and other community partners.

6. CREW S TRUCTURE Membership and Operations Information sharing and communication Funding Marketing

7. CREW A CTIVITIES Resource sharing Support network Trainings and development for CREW participants Trainings for clients Finding employment for our clients!

8. CREW E MPLOYERS Collaboration vs Competition How to maintain individual agency employer relationships while also developing relationships with employers though CREW? Employer Categories Shared Employer Agency Referral CREW Collaboration

9. S HARED E MPLOYER An employer that hires clients from all participating CREW member agencies through individually cultivated relationships. Member agencies maintain the relationship and recruit their own clients for open positions. Example: Scrub & The Hilton Group

10. A GENCY R EFERRAL Burden of maintaining relationship lies with one agency or in some cases two agencies. It is advised that job developers who are interested in this lead approach the agency with the relationship if they have a client they want hired there and the agency with the relationship is advised to consider other agency referrals if spots are open. The agency with the relationship will occasionally contact the whole group if the company needs a large number of applicants. Example: ManPower & Pei Wei

11. CREW C OLLABORATION An employer that hires clients from all participating CREW member agencies through a CREW cultivated relationship. CREW members maintain the relationship on behalf of the group as a whole. Clients are recruited from all agencies equally for open positions. Job leads are always shared between member agencies. Example: Levy Wrigley Field & Best Practices Staffing

12. B ENEFITS TO E MPLOYERS AND R EFUGEES One point of contact Large pool of qualified applicants More available resources Collaboration instead of Competition

13. C HALLENGES TO C OLLABORATION Different agencies have different structure High turnover Balancing CREW and agency work When to share leads How to divide up positions Trusting each other

14. A PPROACHING C OLLABORATION : A S TRENGTH -B ASED P ERSPECTIVE Personal Commitment Communication Leadership Strength-based contributions

15. CREW S UCCESSES A ND WHY WE THINK C OLLABORATION W ORKS HR Advisory Council Access to new employers Placements More resources to provide better employment services for refugees in Chicago Planning refugee job fair