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The Tango of Collective Impact

Posted by Liz Weaver on June 11, 2015

This weekend, I had the pleasure of watching couples dance the tango in a public square in London. The intricacies of the dance, coupled with the individual styles of each dance partner made for an intriguing couple of hours. As each new song filled the square, the couples would wait for a few strands of the music and then proceed to move together. Often with their eyes closed, each couple moved around the dance floor. 

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Tales of Icebergs and Collective Impact

Posted by Liz Weaver on June 10, 2015

There are many interesting sights to see in Newfoundland and Labrador but in June the east coast of this province welcomes icebergs floating by in what is called ‘Iceberg Alley’ (http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/ThingsToDo/IcebergViewing). You can even follow the locations and tracking of these magnificent icons of nature through a website called www.Icebergfinder.com. It seems to me that Collective Impact and icebergs have a lot in common.

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Making the Business Case to Reduce Poverty

Posted by Liz Weaver on May 26, 2015

There have been a number of reports published in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan about the costs of poverty. We can determine the net impact on the GDP from maintaining a persistent level of poverty in Canada. But beyond the net costs, there are the moral and ethical costs that happens when high levels of inequality happen in our communities. 

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Through the Lens of Local Context

Posted by Liz Weaver on January 14, 2015

Every community, large or small has inherent capacity. In December, Tamarack hosted a tele-learning session with Mary Emery from the University of South Dakota. Mary shared information about her work with the community capitals framework which has been used with small and rural communities in the United States to help local leaders uncover the capacity that exists. The community capitals framework is an interesting approach to thinking differently about our communities.

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A Container for Collective Impact

Posted by Liz Weaver on July 31, 2014

This is different work, this work of Collective Impact.  It requires us to deepen relationships with each other and to build new relationshipswith individuals we may not have worked with previously.  It calls upon us to take a new leadership journey, not one that is focused on our own work but one that is focused on a collective, often aspirational, approach to understanding and changing our communities. 

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Bridging the Knowledge and Practice of Collective Impact

Posted by Liz Weaver on July 8, 2014

The July issue of The Philanthropist profiles the theory and practice of collective impact.  The issue contains articles from a variety of perspectives and provides a great overview from Canadian and international thought leaders on how collective impact is evolving. 

I had the opportunity to contribute two articles to this publication.  One of them looked at the promise and peril of collective impact and the second was an interview that I conducted with John Kania and Fay Hanleybrown of FSG Social Impact Consultants just before a Backbone Workshop in Vancouver earlier this spring. 

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