Services > Collective Impact
Collective
Impact
Impact
Sometimes a community has such a persistent and complex challenge that traditional individual or even collaborative strategies cannot effectively address. There have been some innovative strategies developed by visionary groups over the decades who have effectively tackled these persistent community challenges, such as homelessness or educational equity, to achieve impact.
In 2011, the Stanford Social Innovation Review published an article by John Kania and Mark Kramer titled ‘Collective Impact’ that effectively described these approaches and provided a blueprint of how other communities could effectively implement a similar approach.
Our firm is a practitioner of the Collective Impact methodology. Dr. Allers helped in developing the United Way of Greater Atlanta’s first ‘Community Impact’ initiative in 2003 to end chronic homelessness within ten years. This United Way model has become one of several ‘Collective Impact like’ strategies developed around the country and the world. Since then, both partners have led several Collective Impact like initiatives around the country.
Our firm initially helps a community to assess their readiness to take on a Collective Impact approach as well as its ability to sustain the effort over many years. If the community is ready to begin the work, our firm works through the lead organization/s to develop a Collective Impact plan to address a targeted issue with a specific population over a certain period of time.
As part of the planning process, we help the initial planning group to determine some key Collective Impact design components:
Who will serve as the Anchor Institution?
Who will provide the necessary Backbone Functions to coordinate and implement the strategies?
Is there a need for well-known Community Champion/s to help market or advocate for the success of the initiative?
What governance and working group structure is needed for the initiative?
How will the initiative sustain itself over time?
