InWithForward brings research and development to social services to improve outcomes for people living on the margins. Our aim is to re-imagine and redesign social services, “to turn social safety nets into trampolines so that everyone has an opportunity to flourish. That means: using, enjoying, and developing our human capacities. Not just having a roof over our heads and food on the table.”
Read More
Collective Impact is a framework that is being used by many communities to tackle complex problems. At the heart of the framework is the notion of bringing together diverse voices (business, government, community organizations and citizens) to deeply understand the problem and begin to develop strategies to address the systems context and policy barriers. The Collective Impact framework consists of five core conditions: the development of a common agenda that is shared amongst all stakeholders; shared measurement strategies to understand if progress is being made; engaging in mutually reinforcing activities; continuous communications and the support of backbone infrastructure.
Read More
Ingenuity, the ability to be clever, original and inventive, is a skill needed in every community. People living across the Lower North Shore of Quebec have incredible ingenuity and resourcefulness. One of the biggest challenges is that this region is a mix of 15 small, often isolated communities. Some of the communities are only connected by ferry or airplane while others have roads. Cell phone service is sporadic at best and if the weather comes in, forget it. The communities, in the past have spent more time competing with each other, rather than leveraging their ingenuity to tackle their tough problems.
Read More
Community change work is often compared to being engaged in a Tango, a complex dance where the partners exchange leadership, followership, passion, desire, intensity and drama. Now, I am not much of a dancer, but I can appreciate this metaphor.
Read More
There is a big tension in community change efforts. There is the tyranny of the immediate - hunting for quick wins, trying to move the agenda forward and being aware of the multiple demands on participant time. With such a focus on the immediate, we sacrifice the building of relationships and reflection to meet the demands of the short term and time factors.
Read More
Imagine a restaurant review that focused exclusively on the cutlery on the table. “What about the meal?” you would ask. Indeed.
Knives and forks aren’t the meal. They are merely a means to a hopefully delicious end. Sadly, in the social justice world there is too much focus on tools and processes.
