The recent immigration crisis alongside other wicked issues have contributed to inventing new forms of local governance in Sweden – collaborative partnerships between civil society organisations and public sector actors (in Swedish IOP) as a third way alternative  to market contracts and state grants. The article illustrates how actors in such a partnership cope with a major challenge – ballancing the different roles and principles ascribed to public and civil society realms – to sustain the partnerhsip.The arguments are based on a case study of currently the largest local IOP in Sweden for reception of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors. The partnership relations are explored against a synthesised theoretical framework of balanced power and are found to live up to its major expectations. Thus a conclusion is drawn that IOPs may, at least in some instances, serve as 'spaces of hope' for a renegotiated governance.