VISION

We imagine Oregon’s leaders regularly employing the Oregon iSector as a platform for initiating and conducting successful public – private – civic partnerships to address crucial issues. We will assist leaders in overcoming the barriers that prevent working easily and effectively across sectors. The Oregon iSector will enable leaders to work together productively to leverage their resources and capabilities to create innovative solutions to complex social, environmental, and economic problems.

Why iSector Partnerships are Needed

The complexity of many issues we face today — health care, housing, climate change, economic recovery, etc. – can no longer be addressed by any sector acting alone. We have learned that piecemeal and siloed responses are not sufficient to get at these kinds of problems.

These challenging issues often require concerted, joint action sometimes over a long period of time. Leaders must look beyond their own boundaries for opportunities to leverage external resources and expertise to address these challenges. There is increasing recognition that the private and civic sectors need to be working with the public sector to address these pressing issues.

Government, foundations, and for-profit companies collectively have sufficient capital and talent. What is needed is an entity to broker partnerships among them, providing the expertise and support that will achieve greater outcomes for Oregon communities.

A new organization, the Oregon iSector, has been formed to serve as a broker, host, and advocate for successful integrated partnerships.

Key Elements of Oregon iSector Partnerships
      • Partners from the public, private, and civic sectors achieve greater impacts by leveraging and integrating their talents and resources.
      • Co-conveners from different sectors share leadership which is critical to innovation and to sustaining the energy and commitment necessary to carry out long term plans and achieve the desired outcomes.
      • Oregon iSector partnerships are conducted according to a set of principles and practices that enable the sectors to work together more effectively to produce successful outcomes.
An Oregon iSector Partnership,
The Housing Innovation Partnership

The fact is that Oregon is in a tie for last in having the worst housing deficit in the United States. In a crisis, there is a lot of chaos and it can be hard to see the way forward. People tend to double down on preserving the institutions that have been developed over time, but we need to look at this housing crisis objectively and understand that we will not get out of it by doing things the same way we have been. We need a new set of tools.

To that end, a Housing Innovation Partnership has been initiated to bring leaders together to develop and implement an innovative plan to help produce more housing units as soon as possible. The partners come from all sectors – government, business, the nonprofit world, and foundations, who are imaging what we can do to transform our state into a place where every Oregonian has a safe and secure home. 

See more here.

“Our systems for housing production are not always designed to accommodate innovation; in fact, they were designed for a very different time and set of circumstances. This is where our collective job comes in. We need to do things differently than we have in the past to succeed.”

Representative Pam Marsh

Co-Convener Housing Innovation Partnership, District 5 - Southern Jackson County

Other Issues that Lend Themselves to Oregon iSector Partnerships

Complex issues like housing, homelessness, healthcare, securing the social safety net, social determinants of health, access to technology, climate change, economic recovery – all are candidates for future Oregon iSector partnerships.