Over the last year, the First 2000 Days Network has been striving to address systems change efforts as part of our multi-tiered Theory of Change and our Systemic Change Framework. Our Network includes what we term ‘change mechanisms’ at multiple levels: individual, community, organization & agency and systems-level – all with the goal of improving outcomes for children and families.
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As a masters student in strategic communications management at McMaster University (affiliated with Syracuse University), I am doing my final thesis paper on the role of strategic communications in collective impact. My inspiration is the recent study “When Collective Impact Has An Impact” which identified the use of communication as a largely tactical, rather than a strategic function.
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I recently received an email question from a colleague curious about the different approaches identified in the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and collective impact frameworks. They commented that ABCD seemed to be more grassroots driven while collective impact seemed to be more top down driven. This question led me to consider our approach at Tamarack to understanding and incorporating different organizing frameworks into our thinking and training. I thought I would share my response with everyone.
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Collective impact (CI), a framework for influencing systems change, was launched in the winter of 2011. The CI approach has been deployed by community collaboratives across Canada, the US and internationally to move the needle on a wide variety of complex issues from decreasing homelessness and poverty to improving health and education outcomes for children and youth.
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November took me to Australia and New Zealand to meet with colleagues working on community change, community-led development and Collective Impact. I was a keynote speaker and workshop presenter at ChangeFest, a gathering of 500 Collective Impact practitioners in Logan, Queensland.
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We are all familiar with the old adage that “it takes a community to raise a child”, but translating that wisdom into high-impact action is anything but simple. In particular, developing innovative and effective strategies to address the needs of the growing percentage of youth who are neither in school nor at work is an area of specific focus for many communities throughout North America. That is why we are fortunate to have to have examples such as Canada’s Pathways to Education and a new research brief, Building Partnerships: In Support of Where, When, and How Learning Happens published by the Aspen Institute, to offer a richer understanding of the interconnected factors that enable young people to thrive and demonstrate that by working together collaboratively across sectors, communities can achieve high-impact results that ensure promising futures for all youth.
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