The Latest

Reflecting on the Success of Chicago’s New Communities Program and Its Legacy Through Community Organizations Across Chicago

It has now been over 20 years since the New Communities Program (NCP), the United States’ largest comprehensive community initiative began. Founded in Chicago by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation in collaboration with over 20 community development partners and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the New Communities Program took a comprehensive approach to development, incorporating lessons learned from the community development corporation crisis in Chicago in the mid ’90s.

Read More

Innovative community-based projects reducing poverty in Saint John

In 2018, Living SJ collectively raised an additional $10 million over five years for the Saint John community to reduce poverty when they became the stewards of New Brunswick’s Social Innovation Fund. The purpose of the grant is to demonstrate innovative community-based practices that could successfully lift Saint John residents out of poverty and be scaled to other jurisdictions throughout the province.

Read More

Conversations with Quebec

Lire en français

What are Quebec actors saying to Tamarack? My conversations with over 25 organizations in Quebec (between May and June 2021) have revealed the path forward, both in sharing Quebec's experiences in community development elsewhere in Canada and growing and nurturing Tamarack's learning community in Quebec.

Read More

Community-Based COVID Recovery

10 - A Guide for a Community-Based COVID-19 Recovery is a beautiful 32-page booklet based on an idea hatched by the Tamarack Board and Co-CEO’s Liz Weaver and Paul Born while developing a ten-year strategy for Tamarack. As an organization we have spent many hours considering why and how cities and communities have become such a force in community change, especially now during COVID-19. With an eye to the future, this guide captures this momentum, attempting to do so in practical and useful ways.

Read More

You Can Make A Difference: A Guide to Being a Great Consultant

In my recently published book, You Can Make A Difference: A Guide to Being a Great Consultant, I recognize the successful work of the Tamarack Institute in applying a collective impact approach for meaningful community change. As a consultant, manager or leader engaging multiple groups of stakeholders to co-create solutions to complex organizational or industrial challenges, or addressing major community social, health or environmental transformations, this approach enables you to move beyond the single impact of an initiative in the short-term to strive for broader impact in the long-term.

Read More

Announcing the 2020/21 CBYF Community Innovation Fund Recipients

Tamarack Institute is proud to announce the recipients of our 2020-21 Communities Building Youth Futures Community Innovation Fund. Tamarack and Government of Canada’s Learning Branch through the Goal Getters program, have implemented Communities Building Youth Futures to develop system-wide solutions for youth as they build and act upon plans for their future. The Community Innovation Fund is an opportunity for member communities to experiment and develop new models and local efforts, that are not covered by other grants or funding streams, which support youth in the community.

Read More