Enhancing Community Well-Being: The Collective Impact Opportunity

The purpose of this workshop is to educate community members interested in local health improvement initiatives about Collective Impact (CI) and how it can be used to support and accelerate their work. The workshop will be divided into two parts, the morning session will focus on a broad overview of the CI framework and the afternoon session will delve into the application and implementation of collective impact focusing on strategies that support family resiliency and address trauma.

To accomplish these goals, the workshop will include:

• Reviewing the CI framework, anchored within the concepts of collaboration complexity and “seeing systems”
• Providing an overview of the CI framework, consisting of three pre-conditions and five conditions of CI
• Highlighting the differences between collaboration and CI cited in the Stanford Social Innovation Review articles
• Making the case for “Why collective action?”
• Illustrating the impact of community solutions using Vibrant Communities Canada, and other examples
• Outlining key collaborative leadership principles that enhance the effectiveness of collaborative work
• Facilitated opportunities for information sharing amongst participants in order to build a shared definition of CI; create a better, shared understanding of opportunities to apply CI as a framework to support implementation of the various projects currently underway to enhance family well-being; identify possible synergies and gaps across the various plans; and, explore the possibility of creating a common agenda that would help align efforts in ways that are mutually reinforcing to support greater CI

It is expected that this workshop will help participants:

• Be introduced to “Collective Impact”: understanding its key features and how it is different from traditional collaborative efforts (shared goals, outcomes and accountability, backbone organization with expertise and support, multi-disciplinary)
• Deepen engagement in the initiatives that are being championed by MAPP
• Develop consensus around opportunities to apply CI to deepen the impact of community well-being projects of MAPP