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Services
As a community moves from 1) Identifying the need to act systematically, to 2) Developing catalytic leadership, to 3) Creating local support infrastructure, to 4) Building links with external partners - the effort gains sustainability. This is a process of weaving the solution into the very fabric of the community.
The Collaboratory offers services to help communities respond to the need to act quickly , the need to develop and support catalytic leadership, the need for local support, and the need to create links .
Responding to the Need to Act Quickly
Many communities begin the process of comprehensive, systemic approaches with a community-wide visioning conference or presentation. The Collaboratory offers presentations or workshops on the following topics:
- The Galvanizing Power of Solutions
- Distributed Leadership
- Permitting Highest Aspirations
- Community Governance
- From Silos to Systems
The outcomes of these, or custom presentations, is to broaden ownership and strengthen the community's resolve to focus on solution.
Responding to the Need to Develop and Support Catalytic Leadership
The Collaboratory is prepared to partner with whatever individual or organization that is in a natural position to encourage this work through the following services:
- Coaching
- Visioning
- Strategic Planning
- Developing Leadership Capacity
Comprehensive solutions require that partnerships, information, and support occur in an awkward “no man’s land” between legal entities and across traditional boundaries. For communities to work effectively in this “no man’s land,” they need new local decision-making structures that have the information and representation to make good decisions. These structures are typically created as broad-based community governance bodies that are inclusive and yet provide “safe harbors” for wrestling with difficult issues. The Collaboratory can assist communities in creating community governance bodies and facilitating their decision making processes.
Presentations and Workshops
The Collaboratory offers presentations or workshops on the following topics:
- The Community Century
- Environmental Trends Affecting Every Community
- Systems-Based Outcomes Measurement
- New Work of the Nonprofit Board
- Corporate/Community Partnerships
- Systemic Community Investment
- Internet Technology and Comprehensive Community Solutions
Community Support Organizations
The Collaboratory provides facilitation and coaching services to communities to aid in the design and development of local “community support organizations” (CSOs). We help communities understand the core competencies required of such an organization, outline a path for evolving an existing organization into a CSO or for creating a new organization, assist the CSO with cross-organization and community projects, and connect CSOs with one another and with national change agents and resources.
Applied Internet Technology
The Internet effectively eliminates the barriers of moving from a closed, programmatic, fragmented “management information non-system” to an open, systemic, cross-organizational information service environment. The Collaboratory is in the process of developing relationships with Internet-based technology designers to develop the kinds of technology opportunities local communities need, and creating "mass customized" technology solutions.
Responding to the Need for Links
Local alliances and “community support organizations” need to connect with national funders, state and federal policy makers, corporations, and national nonprofits in order to access resources, policy, and information technology that is aligned with community-based, systemic solutions. The Collaboratory seeks to bridge local efforts with national change agents to enable community success.
Community Investors/Funder Collaboratives
If communities are going to succeed in creating systemic, holistic solutions to social problems, community investors (including community foundations, government contractors, United Ways, private foundations, and corporate donors) need to enter into collaborative relationships to help streamline and coordinate their resources for community-wide approaches. The Collaboratory helps facilitate and enable these investor collaboratives for the benefit of local goals. You can
read more about funder collaboratives in an article we published.
Research and Publications
The Collaboratory provides information, analysis, and support to community-based efforts and national change agents through its research services.
As we assist communities in developing comprehensive responses to particular social issues, we also conduct research on work with national partners to obtain quality research results in such areas as:
- History and key statistics of a social issue
- Best practices in community approaches
- Methods for conducting local system profiles and community asset assessments
- Relevant federal and state policy and regulations
- Work of relevant national organizations.
The Collaboratory initiates relationships, engages in ongoing networking, and provides short-term consulting services to national change agents in order to help them align their services and information with local community needs. These national change agents include:
- Foundations
- National Nonprofit Organizations
- Government Agencies and Policy Makers
- Researchers, Policy Analysts, and Academic Centers
- National Corporations
See what our clients have said about our services.
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