The Latest

Online Community Engagement: Is the Data Valid?

Community engagement processes have evolved significantly in the past 15 years with the creation of online engagement methods to complement traditional in-person community engagement. Now, it is common for online community engagement – through online surveys, polling, forums, social media, discussion groups, etc. – to make up a significant portion of engagement activities. The benefits of online engagement are real: the increased breadth of participation, being able to reach people on their own schedule, and reduced costs of printing and distribution, to name just a few.

Connecting to a Cause: When Business Gives Back

In 2015, Vidyard, a video marketing and analytics company based in Kitchener, Ontario, launched an initiative called PlugIn aimed at helping to mitigate some of the negative effects of gentrification in downtown Kitchener by giving back to their community.

Right-Sizing Your Ask

Have you ever considered that maybe your ask is too small?

When I work with communities, the thing I hear myself saying over and over is to make sure you are always offering people ways to get involved. Often, the organizers will go through all the effort to get people out to an event, or to participate in a consultation, and then they don’t capitalize on the momentum. It could be as simple as inviting the community to stay informed with a newsletter or it could be a bigger commitment of time, money or effort.

Community Engagement in Rural Areas

Community Engagement so often relies on citizens feeling an affinity and commitment towards their local area or an issue, but what is unique about engaging community in a rural area? What methodologies can be used to increase participation? How can we ensure that all voices are heard? In rural areas it is often harder to focus on one shared issue and to unite a community when individuals are geographically dispersed and each encounters their own nuanced lifestyle and related issues.

Using Digital Storytelling for Social Impact

How can the community be active agents of change? What's the process of creating an effective story? What's the best way for a story to motivate action? In an age of fast communication - of snippets, of 140 characters, of 7 seconds to grab attention - it is easy to reach people, but how can we use stories to truly connect?

Building Trust and Sustaining Momentum with Key Stakeholders

At the recent Collective Impact Summit I hosted a panel discussion on Building Trust and Sustaining Momentum with Key Stakeholders with Lindsay Daniller from REACH Edmonton, Elena DiBattista from the Our Kids Network, and Adaoma Patterson from the Peel Poverty Reduction Strategy. Each speaker shared their successes, challenges and insights from their many years working in collaboratives and collective impact initiatives.