The Latest

Forging Deeper Connections to Community by Shifting Power Dynamics

Six years ago, Palm Health Foundation made a risky decision. Dissatisfied with the short-term gains of responsive grantmaking, the foundation launched the Healthier Together initiative in an effort to forge a deeper connection to community through the social determinants of health. With no roadmap to follow, the foundation granted $1 million to six communities and asked residents to lead the way in creating lasting, systemic, transformative change. 

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What's Love Got To Do With It?

Tina Turner is well known for delivering the powerful song What’s Love Got to Do With it? That song was rolling around in my head after a recent webinar call with John Kania about the launch of the Collective Change Lab.

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Collective Impact work sets the stage for Saskatoon’s Inter-Agency Response

The COVID-19 crisis has undoubtedly intensified vulnerabilities across communities. Saskatoon's Inter-Agency Response was created out of recognizing the unique challenges the pandemic would bring to agencies supporting vulnerable people. Born out of initial discussions through the Safe Community Action Alliance, it emerged into a comprehensive operation with over 65 organizations.

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Harnessing Stories for Shared Wisdom & Community Action in Palm Beach

I have long been curious about the different roles that stories and narratives can play in the work of community change. I have seen how one individual story, powerfully told, has the power to instantly engage people and offer clarity and understanding of a complex issue in ways that well-researched data and analysis alone cannot accomplish.

I  know that communities, like individuals, have stories about themselves that can both limit and inspire their hopes for the future. These community narratives – about who we are; how things go; what’s possible for us here – shape collective thinking and can play a role in determining the future. Uncovering current shared community narratives and inviting community members to co-create new, compelling narratives that are rooted in their shared hopes for the future can be a powerful lever for community change.

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Nudging Change Through the Smallest Visible System

Tamarack recently hosted a conversation with Cameron Norman, Principal and President at Cense, about the power of individuals to shift systems.  Norman, in a recent blog post, described a way of navigating complex systems by focusing on the smallest visible system. 

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4 Components for Establishing Mutually Reinforcing Activities

Does this situation sound familiar? You have a group of people who have committed to reduce poverty using a Collective Impact or collaborative approach. You know what needs to be done to support people to escape poverty in your community. Yet, scaling the initiative to create large-scale impact feels out-of-reach, because everyone is already at maximum capacity and doing their best to participate “off the side of the desk.” So, the work becomes a series of small manageable projects and programs that raise awareness and help alleviate poverty for some individuals and families.

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