Interagency collaborations between Criminal justice and Welfare services: Maximising the impact of the COLAB project in Norway

Effective collaboration is needed between welfare and correctional services for successful prisoner rehabilitation and reduced reoffending rates. The COLAB project developed an understanding of current collaborative practices between services and proposed tools that could promote collaboration and innovation in the criminal justice context. It also presented a framework describing the challenges of intersectoral and international research consortia. COLAB FORSTERK aimed to maximise the impact of the above findings on Norwegian practice professionals, trainee professionals and researchers. It had 4 main objectives: Objective 1: to develop, using the award-winning Norwegian news report “ the Siw case”, a podcast series of COLAB research results. Objective 2: To disseminate COLAB findings through the distribution of the podcast series to Norwegian frontline professionals, service, leaders, trainee professionals and researchers. Objective 3: to connect the international, intersector expertise of COLAB researchers, in organisational learning, innovation and collaboration in the criminal justice system, to existing Norwegian researcher networks in the field Objective 4: To share experiences and strategies in implementing large scale EU research consortia through delivery of a webinar targeting Norwegian leaders of large scale EU funded research projects The objectives of the project have been met through: The Better Together Podcast Series https://nettop.guru/wordpress/category/better-together/. Twenty episodes explore specifically the importance of collaboration, innovation and organisational learning within the criminal justice field and gives voice to multiple stakeholders involved in the COLAB consortium. Kafé Sosial is a spin off series https://nettop.guru/wordpress/category/kafe-sosial/

COLAB FORSTERK delivered a: *podcast series on COLAB findings embedded in award winning Norwegian press reports "the SIW case". The podcast was aimed at students, the general public, researchers and service professionals. *a webinar on challenges when implementing EU research consortia aimed at Norwegian research leaders *knowledge exchange opportunities between the COLAB consortium and Norwegian research networks in prison and organisational development research. This culminated in a strategic plan for impacting Norwegian policy recommending uptake of COLAB developed tools of innovation/collaboration. Through these deliverables, COLAB FORSTERK is likely to make an impact on the societal challenges of offender rehabilitation. Through disseminating the findings of the COLAB project in the Norwegian setting it may build collaboration/innovation competence in Norwegian criminal justice and welfare professionals. Through the podcast series it gave vulnerable people voice (e.g. prisoners), potentially improving their feelings of wellbeing and socoetal recognition. Through highlighting the knowledge developed through the COLAB project it contributes to the development of collaboration/innovation competencies in future Norwegian welfare workforces. Through sharing COLAB experiences of a large scale EU consortium, it builds Norwegian researcher competence in EU project implementation and expands the networks and reputations of Norwegian researchers across Europe in prison, organisational learning, collaboration and innovation research.

Effective collaboration between welfare and correctional services is needed for successful prisoner rehabilitation and reduced reoffending rates. The COLAB project aimed to improve these collaborations. It delivered frameworks describing current collaborative practices between services and tools with potential in the criminal justice contex to promote collaboration and innovation. It developed frameworks describing how intersectoral and international research consortia can be better managed and challenges facing academic research collaborations in the criminal justice setting. COLAB FORSTERK aims to increase access of Norwegian practice professionals, trainee professionals and researchers to the expertise of the COLAB consortium and the knowledge it has developed. COLAB FORSTERK does this through delivery of four main activities: *podcast series summarising COLAB findings using a Norwegian case history "the SIW case" (Activity 1) *webinar with Norwegian research leaders sharing experiences of implementing EU research consortia (Activity 2) *presentations on COLAB findings to Norwegian centric conferences (Activity 3) *knowledge exchange meetings with key established Norwegian research networks in prison research, organisational development and service design (Activity 4). The activities builds collaboration and innovation competence in Norwegian criminal justice and welfare service professionals. These gives voice to vulnerable people including offenders, improving their wellbeing in the long term. It develops collaboration and innovation competencies in the future workforce. It contributes to Norwegian researchers developing new and lasting research collaborations with international researchers in the field of prison research organisational learning, collaboration and innovation. It builds competence in large-scale EU research consortium implementation and the development of academic practice relationships.