To find out what contributes to an effective and sustainable backbone, the EdRedesign Lab at Harvard University interviewed backbone leaders and field-building organizations about their experiences. Earlier this year, they released a report on the most critical skills and competencies required for a backbone leadership team to succeed when doing collective impact work.

We talk with Tauheedah Jackson, Judy Touzin, and Rob Watson from the Harvard EdRedesign Lab to learn more about these essential backbone leadership competencies, and how these abilities can be spread across multiple team members to better support the work.

Resources and Footnotes

• Harvard EdRedesign Lab
• Report: Building Strong, Sustainable Backbone Leadership

More on Collective Impact

• Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
• Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

During this holiday week, we're replaying one of our favorite episodes from last year that focused on the power of parent engagement.

In this 2022 podcast conversation, we learned about the parent engagement work of Child Safety Forward in Hartford, CT - one of five demonstration sites for the federal demonstration initiative Child Safety Forward. In the discussion, we learned about how the Hartford project has worked with parents to become more comfortable owning and exercising their power – all in service of building a Child and Family Wellbeing System where child protection agencies, community partners, neighbors, and families share a responsibility to ensure children thrive. Joining this discussion to share what they’ve learned were Chavon Campbell and Regina Dyton (Child Safety Forward) and parent advocates Georgina Fuentes and Kayla Waters.

Resources and Footnotes

• Child Safety Forward
• Sustaining Impact for the Long-Term with Child Safety Forward
• Child Safety Forward Implementation Study Final Report
• Utilizing Collective Impact to Reduce Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities

More on Collective Impact

Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

How does a collaborative effort start planting the foundation for sustainability early on? 

In this podcast episode, we learn about the work of Child Safety Forward, a four-year demonstration initiative that engaged five sites across the U.S. in research, planning, and implementation around place-based strategies aimed at reducing child injury and fatality from abuse and neglect. The initiative, funded by the Department of Justice (DOJ) was launched in October 2019 by the DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime.

With the project now closing, we talk with folks from Child Safety Forward to learn what factors were most helpful in building their initial collaborative efforts, and what set the demonstration sites up to continue the work after this funding ended. 

Joining this discussion are:

• Jasmine Brosnan, Evaluation Program Manager, The Child Abuse Prevention Center
• Romero Davis, Director of Practice Excellence, Social Current
• Stacy Phillips, Victim Justice Program Manager, Office for Victims of Crime – United States Department of Justice

References and Footnotes

• Child Safety Forward
• Child Safety Forward Implementation Study Final Report
• Utilizing Collective Impact to Reduce Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities
• The Child Abuse Prevention Center|
• Social Current
• Podcast: The Power of Parent Engagement

More on Collective Impact

• Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
• Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

We’re excited to share with you an episode of another podcast that we think you’ll find very valuable for your social change work. System Catalysts is a show that shares compelling stories from philanthropists and change-makers who are promoting systems change in their communities. They just concluded their first season of stories and we wanted to give them a shout-out and share with you one of their most recent episodes that we think Collective Impact Forum listeners might appreciate.

In this episode of System Catalysts, we hear from Sarah Austin Jenness and Brandon Grant-Walker, who both are part of The Moth. You may have heard of The Moth in your listening travels. It’s an organization and platform devoted to sharing true stories and supporting storytellers, both new and seasoned, on sharing their stories out to the world. As storytelling and narrative are key to collective change work, we thought this might be a good listen. This episode is narrated by Tulaine Montgomery and hosted by Jeff Walker. And if you like what you hear, we hope you subscribe and check out more episodes of System Catalysts. Now let’s tune, and hear more about the power of storytelling at the Moth.

Resources and Footnotes:

• System Catalysts
• Inspiring Systems Change Through Stories With System Catalysts Podcast
• The Moth
• The Moth Radio Hour Episode: 25 Years of Stories: Critical Crash

More on Collective Impact

• Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
• Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

In this episode, Director of Programs and Partnerships Courtney W. Robertson talks with Jamilica Burke and Melody Freeman from Seeding Success, an organization focused on supporting the wellbeing of children and families in Memphis, Tennessee.

In this conversation, they discuss how Seeding Success continues to keep equity at the center of their work, even as they navigate uncertainty and turmoil following the rise of opposition against efforts that specifically address equity disparities. We learn how Seeding Success uses these challenges to fuel themselves forward as well as how they have shifted strategies to continue making progress.

Resources and Footnotes

• Seeding Success
• More for Memphis

More on Collective Impact

• Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
• Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

Local governments can play a critical and necessary role in advancing system and policy changes to support communities, but it can be challenging to understand the complexities within local government and how best to work together. 

In this episode, Forum Director of Programs and Partnerships, Courtney W. Robertson explores how to partner with local and city governments to advance collaborative work in a conversation with Anthony Smith, Executive Director of Cities United. 

Cities United is an organization that advocates for a holistic approach to reducing gun violence and supporting public safety, and does so through building movements within cities, connecting local government stakeholders with community partners and youth to create safe, healthy, and hopeful communities.

Anthony shares what Cities United has learned from over a decade of work partnering with cities across the United States, including what to think about when engaging with local government, what readiness factors to consider before launching a partnership, what capacity and knowledge building may be necessary to understand how your local government and its branches work, and what connections and levers may be needed to strengthen your partnership efforts.

Resources and Footnotes

• Cities United
  CVI Ecosystem

More on Collective Impact

• Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
• Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

Complex issues like homelessness can feel unsolvable or intractable, but that does not have to be the case. Through a commitment to a collective approach and strategies, communities can end homelessness.

We take a deep dive into this collective approach required to solve homelessness with Community Solutions, a nonprofit that is dedicated to ending homelessness. As part of their mission, Community Solutions leads Built for Zero, a movement of more than 100 cities and counties that are applying this approach so that homelessness can be rare or brief in their regions.

Sharing about what they learned from supporting the Built for Zero network, we talk with Community Solutions’ president Rosanne Haggerty. She details the strategies that have contributed to progress, the mindset changes that happen when you realize even the hardest problems can have a solution, and what it means when a community says, "Enough is enough. Let’s solve this."

References and Footnotes

• Community Solutions
• Built for Zero
• Rockford, Illinois: Functional Zero Case Study

More on Collective Impact

• Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
• Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

In this episode, we discuss the practice of community-led monitoring, and how this practice can help inform and influence collaborative change efforts.

To learn more about community-led monitoring, we talk with the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), a global network that works to achieve universal access to HIV treatment and other life-saving medicines. One of ITPC’s core strategies is to "watch what matters," which includes supporting data gathering and analysis that’s centered on and led by community members, and reflects the issues and questions that are most important to people living with and affected by HIV.

To share about what they’ve learned from their community-led monitoring work, we hear from ITPC’s Executive Director Solange Baptiste and Citizen Science Lead Krista Lauer. They share how data practices like community-led monitoring can unearth community access barriers and pain points within a system, and how that information can be gathered to inform advocacy efforts and policy change.

References and Footnotes

• ITPC – International Treatment Preparedness Coalition
• CLMhub.org
• Video: What is Community-Led Monitoring (CLM)?

More on Collective Impact

• Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
• Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

In this episode, we discuss the power of community partnerships, and how necessary they are when working to support better outcomes for the whole community. 

In this discussion, we learn about the community partnership work of JumpStart, a service organization that focuses on supporting folks re-entering society after incarceration. Partnerships are a critical factor to support JumpStart’s participants in finding what they need so they can more fully rejoin their communities, including employment, housing, and healthcare. 

To share about their partnership journey and what they’ve learned so far, we hear from Don Williams, who is a co-founder of JumpStart and Director of Community Relations. Don shares about the long road JumpStart has traveled to provide a whole eco-system of partners to support their participants, and how important it was that even when they faced negative biases, they never gave up trying. 

References and Footnotes

JumpStart
The Water of Systems Change

More on Collective Impact

Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

What can it look like to build capacity to support authentic community listening?

In this podcast discussion, we learn about the community listening work supported by Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, based in St. Petersburg, Florida. We hear from a group of partners that worked together to establish community listening to support the South St. Petersburg CRA (Community Redevelopment Area), and what they learned along the way, including supporting community members’ capacity for listening, pivoting through evolving political priorities, and how a hurricane can change everything. 

Joining this discussion to share what they learned is Deborah Grodzicki (RDL Insights), Carrie Y. Hepburn-Brown (Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg), Meiko Seymour (Uncommon City) and Julian Smith (Nixon & Co.)

References and Footnotes

• Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg
• Uncommon City
• Nixon and Co.
• RDL Insights

More on Collective Impact

Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/