Today, for Canada’s 149^th birthday, we celebrate all the things that make us proud to be Canadian.

We do that in different ways – from sporting the maple leaf, to eating a Beavertail, watching fireworks or sharing a story around a campfire. Together, we unite for one day of continuous pride for the country we all call home.

But of course, despite the pride, we all have an idea for how CanadaÌıcould be even better: Roughly 35 million Canadians meansÌıroughly 35 million visions for the country.

That’s a lot of visions.

How can people share their story on what they want their Canada to look like?

Leanne Clare is the founder and lead storyteller at the Campfire Project.

How do we collect those visions and see what people really care about?

Leanne Clare has the answer.

Clare created the , a platform where Canadians can share their stories about their vision for Canada and actually be heard.

“I really like the idea of storytelling to really get at what people value,� Clare says.

“As a former journalist, I know that stories contain what people really care about, what they value and they also have the ability to inspire other people.”

Clare says the idea came to her in the shower four years ago when there was a lot of frustration among Canadians because there was no vision for the country coming from Parliament Hill.

Clare recalls her eureka moment.

“I thought: We don’t need a bunch of politicians to tell us what the country could be. We could crowd source this by using stories to try and figure out what people want for the future of the country, and we could create a big, national vision out of that.�

Clare left her job at the David Suzuki Foundation to pursue Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at ĞÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. She joined the ĞÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Centre for Community Innovation where she is currently working on the Campfire Project as a Research Associate.

The project will use Canada’s milestone 150^th birthday to frame communication and encourage Canadians to share their vision.

Clare is hoping the platform, called Campfire 150, will spark deeper civic engagement across the country, turning the online action into offline action.

“I want us to be able to learn from those digital stories and figure out how to actually translate that into meaningful engagement.�

Clare sees the project as a true collective impact project and wants to engage as many partners and perspectives as possible.

Campfire at Crotch Lake in Algonquin Park
© Leanne Clare

“I want to gather people around the modern campfire, a digital campfire known as the Internet,� she says.

“It’s an idealistic project in some way, but it is really trying to fight against the negativity that is online and show that it can be used positively and that people are hearing each other.�

Clare says the Campfire platform will haveÌıthe ability to be translated to other organizational contexts to ask “what should we do about X?â€� and get answers from the community about what people really think and want.

Clare plans to build and launch the platform by the end of the year to gain momentum before Canada’s 150^th birthday. At that time, she will start to collect stories for the national vision and will release Canada’s collective thoughts in the fall of 2017.

Clare hopes to have community dialogue around the visions that could lead to a new road map for change in Canada.

“It’s the beginning of something,� Clare says.

“I don’t really know where it’s going to go, but I’m excited about where it might take me.â€�

One of the Poverty Reduction Hub partners, Living Saint John, has developed a Social Renewal Strategy that outlines four social priorities they are developingÌıin conjunction with community partnerships. These priorities include transforming low-income neighbourhoods into vibrant communities with mixed incomes, closing the gap in educational achievement, using a neighbourhood-based model of care to improve health, and providing education and training geared towards employment.

To follow-through with these priorities, Living Saint John uses a collective impact approach that is structured and collaborative. This approach brings together members from all parts of the Greater Saint John community, including business, provincial and municipal government, the education sector, and non-profit and community-based organizations to work towards the common goal of a strong and vibrant Saint John community for all its citizens.

Check out the video below for a brief overview of the Strategy:

The full Social Renewal Strategy can be . For more information about the Strategy, or aboutÌıLiving Saint John, please .

What is Collective Impact?

Collective Impact is the model for effecting change embraced by the Poverty Reduction Hub’s community partners. Kania and Kramer coined the term Collective Impact in 2011, which includes five core strategies:

• a common agenda,
• shared measurement,
• mutually reinforcing activities,
• continuous communications,
• and a backbone infrastructure.

When the Poverty Reduction (PR) Hub’s partner, Vibrant Communities’ local partners formed poverty reduction roundtables, the five conditions of collective impact were intuitively in place. identified a shared approach, and each community developed a local strategy based on a common “agenda� design. The communities created a shared measurement framework that tracked progress not only locally, but also at the pan-Canadian level. Vibrant Communities formed the backbone infrastructure of the Poverty Reduction Hub.

Employing Collective Impact in the Poverty Reduction Hub?

The first unofficial step of the process was to build our relationship. The community co-lead and I had what I consider an ‘arranged partnership’. We needed to take the time to see how our personalities, goals, and work style fit with one another. As we both lived in different cities, we took the time to commute to each other’s work spaces as a way to enhance the conversation, equalize power, and learn each other’s professional lingo.

Our first step was to establish a common agenda through ongoing conversations between the two of us. Once we had agreed on funding demonstration projects driven by Vibrant Communities’ members, while exploring their models of community campus engagement (CCE), we brought the agenda to the broader PR Hub for their input, review, and buy-in. This began our tradition of continuous communication where the hub co-leads make decisions equally, and regularly communicate them to project partners at monthly conference calls.

Due to the vast distance between our project partners, once a year, the entire PR Hub would gather for a face-to-face meeting. We have rotated cities each time so that we learn about each other’s projects in a tangible, hands-on way.Ìı We would review the progress of the demonstration projects and discuss our on-going investigations into models of community campus engagement. These became our mutually reinforcing activities. We enjoyed our times together and made progress toward our goals.

The final strategy in collective impact is shared measurement. Annually, during the face-to-face meetings, project participants were asked to describe their relationships, and reflect on how their models had changed. This process, facilitated by internal evaluators and hub co-leaders, allowed participants to discuss, challenge, and weave narratives to accompany the visual representations of community campus partnerships around poverty reduction.

As a result, the narratives and visual representations of CCE, generated by our poverty reduction partners, can be used by other communities that seek a model or wish to build a specific community campus strategy of their own.

Collective Impact is an important tool for facilitating community campus engagement in order to have an impact on an important policy issue like reducing poverty. For more information please visit and .

What: Skill building workshop led by Liz Weaver, Tamarack Foundation
When: May 26, 2015 9AM to 5PM
Where: C2U Expo Pre-conference , Algonquin College
CACSL and Volunteer Canada Members: $75
Non-members: $180 (Usual price $199)
To register:

Led by Tamarack’s, Liz Weaver this hands on workshop will lead participants through building their knowledge of collective impact, assessing, where and if it fits with their community work, and providing take away tools for moving forward. It is targeted to community leaders, volunteer centres, and community engaged scholars.

This interactive full day workshop will provide participants with an overview of Collective Impact and a variety of practical tools to move from theory to implementation. The workshop will also focus on the engagement of a variety of unique and often overlooked partners in collective impact efforts: volunteer centres, the business community and campus leadership. The participants will identify and discuss the unique contributions that each of these partners can make to advancing a collective community change effort.

Cost : $75/person for members of CACSL or Volunteer Canada; $180/person for all others. Contact CACSL or Volunteer Canada to purchase your membership.
For more information, please contact Geri Briggs at Geri.Briggs@Carleton.ca or pspeevak@volunteer.ca

On May 23rd, 2014 RDI will present Mark Cabaj, the President of the consulting company From Here to There and an Associate of Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement, via webinar. Mark’s current focus is on developing practical ways to understand, plan and evaluate efforts to address complex community issues (e.g. neighbourhood renewal, poverty and homelessness, community safety, educational achievement and health). Mark served briefly as the Executive Director of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) in 2001. He was the coordinator of the Waterloo region’s Opportunities 2000 Project (1997-2000), an initiative that won provincial, national and international awards for its multi-sector approach to poverty reduction. Mark lives in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) with his wife Leann and their children Isaiah and Zoë.

Audience:
Municipal Managers, Community Economic Development Officers, Local Leaders, Development Practitioners, Municipality Staffs and Managemnt, Students and Faculties, and everyone interested in Community Engagemnt and Collective Impact.

When: Friday, May 23, 2014 (please RSVP by May 22, 2014)
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (CST)
For more information or to register contact Rural Development Institute at:
adedirany@brandonu.ca
204-571-8585 / 800-571-8585
www.brandonu.ca/rdi

Collective Impact & Community ChangeÌı–ÌıWindsor, ON
Speaker: Liz Weaver
Date:ÌıMay 22, 2014
Location:ÌıWindsor, ON

Advance your community’s agenda with tools and techniques that move beyond impact.

Join internationally recognized trainer and community builder, Liz Weaver, for a workshop that dives into the collective impact approach and how it can enhance the impact of community change efforts.

• Learn how collaborative tables can organize for change.
• Explore how the application of the three preconditions of collective impact and the five conditions for community change can enhance your local efforts.
• Advance your community’s agenda with tools and techniques that move toward impact.
• Embrace the power of citizen engagement and collective impact.

More info at:Ìı

I am pleased to invite you to participate in an upcoming issue of The Philanthropist [http://www.thephilanthropist.ca ] focussing on Collective Impact (CI). The Philanthropist is a quarterly review for practitioners, scholars, supporters, and others engaged in the non-profit sector in Canada and has become a pre-eminent voice to explore current trends and issues.

I expect that Community Service-Learning programmes are beginning to encounter CI initiatives in your work and would be delighted to hear more about the experience of post-secondary institutions with this model for solving complex social problems through highly structured collaboration.

The attachedÌı()ÌıÌıis a two page overview describing Collective Impact and suggested areas of inquiry to explore this new theory and model for collaboration where “organizations from different sectors agree to solve a specific social problem using a common agenda, aligning their efforts, and using common measures of successâ€� .

There are three ways in which you can get involved:

1. Propose a 3,000 – 4,000 word feature article based on your experience or views about Collective Impact. Draft articles should be submitted by 31 January, 2014 for review and discussion in February.

2. Develop a Case Study describing an initiative in Canada which uses a Collective Impact approach or shares similar characteristics. We are particularly interested in exploring similarities and differences and in determining the effectiveness and challenges of collaborations which address complex social problems.

3. Share your interest, experience and views directly with me to inform our work and suggest other contacts which may be interested in participating.

I look forward to hearing from anyone with an interest in this subject.

Larry Gemmel

Associate Guest Editor

The Philanthropist – Collective Impact

Val-des-Monts QC

larry.gemmel@sympatico.ca

For further information:

On September 24, Liz Weaver animated an all-day Community Collaboration Forum in London, Ontario.Ìı Attended by 170 participants from the non-profit, university and government sectors, the event was organized by the Pillar Nonprofit Network.

The event included a panel entitled “Putting Collective Impact into Practice,� and involved Tom Cooper of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, Cheryl Rose of Social Innovation Generation at the University of Waterloo, and Ted Jackson from CFICE.

The Tamarack Institute is one of North America’s leaders in the emerging field of collective impact.