Since it’s release in 2015, Paul Born’s book, Deepening Community: Finding Joy Together in Chaotic Times has become a national best-seller. As growing levels of loneliness and isolation are reported amongst people of all ages across the country, the need to discover new ways to foster connection between neighbours has never been greater.
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What a summer it has been. I am currently on a summer break to rest and reflect and am feeling pretty grateful to our board, Liz Weaver (Acting President) and our team for giving me this opportunity. As you can imagine, getting some extended time away can make one optimistic. I am finding it pretty easy to smile these days.
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At the turn of this century, Robert Putnam wrote the most depressing book for those of us who believe that there is no substitute for community. Putnam cited all sorts of indicators of the breakdown of social capital over the previous fifty years – closed pubs, fewer voters, less families eating together, and declining membership in Rotary, League of Women Voters, NAACP and other associations. The book was titled Bowling Alone because Putnam documented a dramatic loss in the number of bowling leagues.
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I began my collective impact path a month after the 3.0 article was released last summer and it has taken a while to examine and understand the journey of the pre 3.0 era. My learning experience has been dynamic: I found collective impact to be a necessary alternative to the current collaborative processes, but still continued to seek concrete methods and tools for success. This is where the conference was very helpful with walking through and discussing the different tools for measurement and evaluation, and also connecting with others involved in community change. We became an extended community at this conference and though we were at different stages in our work, we were willing and open to share our struggles and highlight the little victories.
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I had expected the Tamarack Conference would offer me specific actionable items to further Synapcity’s work in neighbourhoods. What I hadn’t expected was the provocative challenges put forward to me as a person and as a professional. I imagined my takeaways to centre around the community level of change, but I was surprised to leave with a deeply personal reflection: if I intend to act as a meaningful contributor to my community, both the system and my role within the system require reimagining.
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I have a copy of the Collective Impact 3.0 paper by Liz Weaver and Mark Cabaj in my permanent reference file.
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