At Family Life our purpose is transforming lives for stronger communities. Whilst we have in mind the characteristics of the stronger community we are aiming for, we do not necessarily know the detail.
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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.
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I'm a really lucky guy. I got to spend a week with my Canadian friends earlier this month and, once again, they both affirmed and pushed my thinking.
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As the opening keynote speaker at the Collective Impact Summit held in Toronto 6-10 October, Melody Barnes brought considerable political insight and experience to the question of Why Collective Impact and Why Now? Barnes, who served as assistant to US President Barack Obama and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council from 2009 to January 2012, was a key player in creating the White House Council for Community Solutions, which was established by the President in 2010 to seek solutions to America’s most serious problems, which the President felt certain would be found in local communities and not in Washington.
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It is always a pleasure to see and hear John Kania speak. In fact one participant at the recent Collective Impact Summit hosted by Tamarack in Toronto called Kania a “Rockstar” and I think the tribute is appropriate - John is a compelling speaker and certainly inspiring with his wonderful mix of clear conceptual thinking, rigorous research, real-life examples, and practical advice.
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Brenda Zimmerman is concerned about why some Collective Impact initiatives are falling short of expectations. She believes that part of the problem is that leaders are “Snapping Back” to old habits and inappropriate modes of management and not recognizing the kind of ecological resilience needed to address complex issues. In her keynote presentation to the Collective Impact Summit convened by Tamarack in Toronto 6-10 October, she talked about how to understand change in complex social systems, the type of resilience that is needed to address this, and how to mitigate the risks of “Snap Back”.
“Managers would rather live with a problem they can’t solve than with a solution they can’t fully understand or control.” - Eric Bonobeau, researcher in swarm intelligence and CEO of Icosystems
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