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Think. Talk. Take Action. Talking About Poverty & Unemployment

April 12, 2012 in Blog Post, Conversation, Jobs & Training, Poverty, Uncategorized

Launching April 16, 2012
Login to “All Conversations” and Join Us

Minnesota had 17,400 residents that had been unemployed for more than six months in 2007. Four years later, in June 2011, this had increased to 75,800, including 47,700 that had been unemployed for more than a year.

Join us here on United Front for a series of conversations designed to stimulate and deepen thinking in response to poverty data recently released in United Way’s Faces of Poverty Report. LEARN MORE

New Community Launched

March 22, 2012 in Education, Home Visiting, Uncategorized, United Front Blog Archives

Welcome to United Front, Home Visiting Community!

One of the smartest investments and proven ways to support children, parents, and a growing economy is home visiting.

A network of home visiting programs that have what it takes to support and transform the lives of at-risk expectant and new parents and their babies and toddlers, the Coalition is a statewide organization that seeks to be a network of high quality, home visiting programs and services that promote learning and success for children in our community. Learn more about Who We Are

Heard in Talking About Collective Impact

March 5, 2012 in Collective Impact, Conversation, Uncategorized, United Front Blog Archives

Mark Kramer

Jeff Edmondson

Thanks for joining United Front for an online conversation with Mark Kramer, FSG, and Jeff Edmondson, STRIVE. We hope the exchange between participants and experts provided you with more insights to further your understanding of Collective Impact and that you will join us for future conversations on United Front.

“Mark – I agree. There is increasing political will to support more collective initiatives. Locally, we have applied for Social Innovation Funds to take a model we know works (Hospital to Home) to a much larger scale. Hospital to Home programs target housing stability and supports to frequent users of expensive medical systems (who are homeless) in hopes of increasing their stability and finding a more cost-effective and sustainable health care home. I also think the Obama Administration’s focus on ending homelessness for veterans is a good example – brings together the VA, public housing authorities, HUD, and local homeless outreach and service providers. There has been a 12% reduction in homeless veterans nationwide and a 33% reduction of homeless veterans here in Minneapolis/Hennepin County.”
 Cathy ten Broeke, Minneapolis/Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness 

Download Mark and Jeff’s Collective Impact Q&A (PDF)
Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work Article by Fay Hanleybrown, John Kania, & Mark Kramer

Heard on United Front Now

February 29, 2012 in Collective Impact, Conversation, Uncategorized

Talking About Collective Impact

Conversation Topic: Transition Strategies/Models

What are some effective strategies or approaches for causing the sort of “mind shift” amongst partners; from isolated impact to collective impact?

Mark Kramer: Creating “urgency for change” or, in other words, a need for a collective impact approach to solving the complex problem at hand is one effective strategy. In some cases, a crisis might have broken out that convinces people of the need of an entirely need approach. There might be the potential for substantial funding that might entice people to work together. Conducting research and publicizing a report that captures media attention and highlights the severity of the problem is another way to create the necessary sense of urgency to persuade people to come together.

Another strategy includes bringing examples of successful examples that have used collective impact to address similar issues. A strategy we use at FSG is a collective impact role play exercise where participants are split into groups of 7, each given a specific role in “education” within a community. For example, one participant might represent a community college president, another participant might represent a student parent, another participant might represent a superintendent, etc. All participants “have their own agenda” and goals but must work together to find common understanding on how to fix the education system in their community. Through these exercise participants are able to see how inter-related each of their problems are, and how a cross sector collaborative approach to addressing failing education across the community is needed.

Heard on United Front Now

February 28, 2012 in Collective Impact, Conversation, Uncategorized

Talking About Collective Impact

Conversation Topic: Collective Impact ROI

Nonprofits are being held accountable for developing and meeting specific, measurable outcomes, including (and especially) measuring return on investment for their individual programs. There is also a growing movement amongst public and even private funders towards a “pay for performance” model. What implications will this have on developing a collective set of metrics against which success of the collective effort will be measured? How might communities, particularly funders, reconcile conflicting interests?
Mark Kramer: I’m very enthusiastic about the pay for performance model – there are some serious challenges to financing services in advance of getting paid – especially when payment is contingent on results – but it certainly aligns the incentives in the right way if the financing can be managed. One of the interesting side-effects of pay for performance is that the ultimate result often depends on multiple organizations’ efforts, and so it naturally leads to a shared measurement system among multiple organizations that work toward a common definition of success. This again helps align everyone’s incentives behind the ultimate social outcome, rather than their individual organizational agendas.

It is quite true that different funders have different definitions of success – just as different grantees do – and so it is not easy to get agreement on a shared measurement system and single vision of success. But this is just a matter of patient and persistent facilitation. Ultimately, we have seen, time and again, that different funders and grantees can come to agreement on a set of shared measures that are perceived as fair by all participants. Often, it is a pretty basic set of measures: For example, we might argue at length about what a good education looks like, but we can usually agree that basic reading competence by third grade, and math competence in eighth grade, high school graduation, and similar milestones are key indicators of success. Often there is solid academic research to back up what key success factors are on a range of social problems and that can serve as a starting point. Each organization may still have other specific goals it strives to achieve above the common measures, but getting agreement on the basic measures is a huge step forward.

Heard on United Front Now

February 28, 2012 in Collective Impact, Conversation, Uncategorized

Talking About Collective Impact

Conversation Topic: Identifying Resources

Are there resources to help organizations do a collective impact process to address an issue?

Jeff Edmondson: Communities can find local assets to leverage from a variety of sources. As an example, the backbone organization has three key roles that need to be played and these could come from existing resources:

  • Chief “Cat Herder”: Someone who wakes up thinking about this every day. There may be an existing non-profit well positioned to lead such work or a community leader in the Chamber or District recognized for building consensus. Having partners who would be willing to loan or donate such talent is ideal.
  • Data Analyst: Universities are ripe to play this role, but corporations often have experts in this area as well who could provide critical support.
  • Facilitators: If a funder is interested in a particular outcome, such as kindergarten readiness, they could consider funding an expert facilitator to guide practitioners through the process with the expectation a collaborative action plan will emerge.

Heard on United Front Now

February 28, 2012 in Collective Impact, Conversation, Uncategorized

Talking About Collective Impact

Conversation Topic: Data Collection

To what extent is the Harlem Children’s Zone an example of collective impact?

Mark Kramer: The Harlem Children’s Zone is a terrific organization, and it certainly embodies the idea that a comprehensive approach – much like Strive’s cradle to career approach – is needed to ensure that children succeed in school and in life. HCZ provides many different services that would typically be provided by different organizations, and it is therefore able to better align its different activities in mutually reinforcing ways just like a collective impact initiative.

But HCZ is still just one organization – however remarkable it may be. It does not engage other nonprofits, corporations and school districts as full participants in designing the solution. It operates in a relatively small geographical area, much smaller than many of the collective impact initiatives we have studied – which include global examples like GAIN in our newest article — and it depends on the remarkable leadership of Geoffrey Canada rather than a dispersed model of leadership in which all the organizations involved share accountability. So, we see it as capturing some of the benefits of collective impact but it isn’t really a full example of it.

Talking About Collective Impact

February 20, 2012 in Collective Impact, Conversation, Domestic/Family Violence, Uncategorized, United Front 2011, United Front Blog Archives

Starting Monday, February 27

Mark Kramer

Jeff Edmondson

Collective Impact experts Mark Kramer and Jeff Edmondson are joining United Front for a special online conversation generated by the United Against Violence Summit and United Front 2011 events last year. Mark and Jeff will be on hand to share additional insights and answer your questions on a range of topics including accessing resources, data collection, backbone organizations and transition models.

Think About It.
United Front’s interactive platform is an ideal learning space for deep, critical thinking about how to solve complex problems in our community. Come with your questions and curiosity. We will have resources available to help ground you in the most current thinking about Collective Impact.    

Cathy ten Broeke

Johnathan Sage-Martinson

Talk About It.
Spend some time talking with people in our own community like Cathy ten Broeke, director, Minneapolis/Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness,and Jonathan Sage-Martinson, Central Corridor Funders Collaborative and others who will help to expand our discussion.

Take Action.  Register Now!
You must be registered on United Front to participate in the conversation. Our online conversation is NOT a real-time chat. That means you can log on and add your questions or comments whenever it’s convenient for you.

Not Registered? Register Here be sure to check the box next to Collective Impact: Continuing the Conversation.

Already Registered on United Front? Log In, go to the “All Conversations” tab, and click the Collective Impact Conversation “Join” button.

Need Help? Email the United Front Team

Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work

February 16, 2012 in Collective Impact, Domestic/Family Violence, Uncategorized, United Front 2011, United Front Blog Archives

Stanford Social Innovation Review & FSG Webinar
March 20, 2012
11:00–noon PT, 2:00–3:00pm ET, 7:00–8:00pm CET
Register Here

By Fay Hanleybrown, John Kania, & Mark Kramer

What does a global effort to reduce malnutrition have in common with a program to reduce teenage substance abuse in a small rural Massachusetts county? Both have achieved significant progress toward their goals: the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has helped reduce nutritional deficiencies among 530 million poor people across the globe, while the Communities That Care Coalition of Franklin County and the North Quabbin(Communities That Care) has made equally impressive progress toward its much more local goals, reducing teenage binge drinking by 31 percent. Surprisingly, neither organization owes its impact to a new previously untested intervention, nor to scaling up a high-performing nonprofit organization. Despite their dramatic differences in focus and scope, both succeeded by using a collective impact approach. Download PDF to READ MORE

NSC Responds to Obama Address in Press, Now It’s Your Turn

January 25, 2012 in Financial Fitness, Jobs & Training, Uncategorized, United Front Blog Archives

Last night, President Obama laid out his vision for “an economy that’s built to last.” National Skills Coalition applauds the President for making “Skills for American Workers” a central tenet of that vision and committing to train 2 million workers through a streamlined workforce system built on partnerships with businesses that are ready to hire. Read Andy Van Kleunen’s press statement responding to the President’s speech and calling for policies and investments that can make the President’s vision a reality. And read Van Kleunen’s comments in the Huffington Post’s coverage of the speech.

We hope that you will take a moment today to send a response to your local press in the form of an op-ed. The President’s plans to implement his vision for a skilled workforce will be detailed in his budget proposal, to be released on February 13. Then Congress will follow with its proposals. Now is a critical moment for the workforce development field to reinforce the President’s message, express hopes for how that vision will be implemented through the President’s budget, and call on Congress to invest in and improve—not cut—federal workforce funding.

Click here for tips on writing and submitting op-eds to your local paper. Click here for useful facts to include in your op-ed.