In a recent webinar exploring six patterns of social innovation, Tamarack Thought-Leader Al Etmanski spoke of his hope for a "resurrection of the ordinary" which he described as "recognizing ordinary people and their extraordinary power."
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He wheels his wheelchair up to where we stand on the platform waiting for a train back downtown. A co-worker and I have just come from a memorial service for people who have died on the street in the past few months. The man in the wheelchair was also there and as he straightens out his position, I greet him and we begin to chat.
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Last November, J.W. McConnell Family Foundation President and CEO, Stephen Huddart, gave a talk at MaRS Discovery District that sketched out the emerging path being trail blazed by contemporary foundations. It is a path that is as significant for how it is being created emergently and collaboratively as it is for its destination system changes generating positive social and environmental outcomes.
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Collective Impact is all the rage. In my field, everyone is studying it, doing it, and lauding its virtues. Its birth is sourced from an article written a few years back in the Stanford Social Innovation Review by John Kania and Mark Kramer. The brilliance of this initial article, simply titled, Collective Impact, isn’t because it’s full of new ideas or because the authors identified a way of working that no one had considered before. Instead, their article offers an approach to largescale collaboration that is in effect a convergence of proven practice that they found in various places along the broad and complex landscape of social challenges.
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In the late 1990s key leaders in Waterloo Region began dreaming of a different future for their community. They came together to create Opportunities 2000 with the bold aim of moving 2000 individuals out of poverty by the year 2000. The leaders represented many different sectors and wanted to work differently together. Little did they realize that their bold vision would not only change the lives of citizens in Waterloo Region, it would also spark a national movement of cities reducing poverty.
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Follow up post to Feb 18th CoP meeting.
The Canadian Collective Impact Community of Practice (CI CoP) is for practitioners who are using the collective impact approach to achieve large-scale system change in Canada. The members meet bi-monthly to discuss questions, challenges and successes in their collective impact work, and to connect with one another.
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