Tag Archives: collective impact

Community Power, Empowerment, and Models of Capacity Building

October 27, 2015

5:006:30 p.m. 

Room K214 – 232 King St. North, Waterloo ON

Dr. Brian Christens is associate professor of Civil Society and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Human Ecology. He is faculty director of the UW Center for Community & Nonprofit Studies, and holds affiliate appointments in departments focused on population health, sociology, and environmental studies. His research is on community power and empowerment – particularly the ways that local groups can build power to make beneficial changes to systems that affect their lives.

In this talk, Dr. Christens will discuss models for capacity building such as coalition action, collective impact, and grassroots organizing – and consider them from the perspective of community power and empowerment. He will describe how recent research is informing efforts to build local power for community change.

All are welcome to attend! Light refreshments will be served. Learn more at www.wlu.ca/ccrla

Ontario Food and Nutrition Strategy

A Plan for Healthy Food and Food Systems
October 2014

The Ontario Food and Nutrition Strategy Design Team has identified the need for a cross-government, multi-stakeholder coordinated approach to address food policy and program development and to develop a plan for healthy food and farming in Ontario.

This framework is the result of consultations with over 40 representatives of agriculture, farm, food, nutrition and health groups, engagement with First Nations and Aboriginal service providers, as well as online surveys with over 200 submissions between 2012 and 2014.

Over the coming months, the OFNS Design Team will work on the development of a technical report to accompany the strategy and undertake a collective impact approach.   Collective Impact involves diverse organizations coming together to solve a complex social problem and for a common purpose – creating alignment, commitment, policy and trust and coordinating across sectors.

Read more

Upcoming Webinars

Collective Impact and Community Economic Development
September 23, 12 pm Eastern

Canadian Community Economic Development Network
Increasingly, community organizations are engaging in collaboration as a means to try and solve some of the most complex issues that they face. But these challenging issues require a new approach, a new framework.

Join internationally recognized trainer and community builder Liz Weaver for a workshop that provides participants with an overview of collective impact and how this approach can enhance the impact of community change efforts. Read more

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: CHOOSING THE RIGHT SYSTEMS FOR YOUR FOOD ENTERPRISE

September 24th at 2PM Atlantic / 10 AM Pacific

Food Business Bootcamp – Food Secure Canada
Choosing a mobile device these days can be overwhelming, never mind selecting the best information technology system for your food business. Yet understanding both your needs and the range of options to meet them can save you critical money in both the start up and ongoing phase of your operation.
Saloni Doshi, Strategy Consultant with New Venture Advisors.
Read more

 

Food Hub Benchmarking Study 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM ET

The NGFN Food Hub Collaboration
Food Hubs are delivering on their promise of enabling identity-preserved, primarily local and regional food to enter the wholesale market, enabling small and mid-sized farms access to buyers that would otherwise be unattainable. But aggregation and distribution of food is a very thin-margin business, and hubs take on additional expense working with smaller farmers, providing technical assistance, and other grower and community services. Are food hubs able to support themselves with their operations? What are industry-standard financial and operational benchmarks for food hub businesses? Read more

 

Measuring Your Local Impact

September 25th at 1-2 PM Pacific

BALLE (the Business Alliance of Local Living Economies)
Place matters, people matter, ownership matters… and how we measure them matters.
Local leaders are constantly asked to quantify their impact on their communities for funders, partners and standard reporting. The challenge is knowing the right questions to ask and having useful, accessible tools that are relevant for the New Economy.
In this free webinar, hear what BALLE is learning from our network leaders, hands-on case studies from two BALLE fellows, and an update on the Quick Impact Assessment for Localists, a new online tool BALLE is piloting in partnership with B Lab to help conveners measure outcomes among businesses in their communities. Read more

 

Communities Defining Quality Collective Impact

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2014 – 16:00 TO 17:00
Over 49 communities are working together through the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network to define quality collective impact. Join this online panel discussion to learn about the proven, rigorous approach these communities are using to build civic infrastructure and hear stories about how cross-sector partnerships on the ground are implementing innovative approaches to support the unique needs of every child.

Fortnightly Feast vol. 19

Upcoming Webinars

Food on our minds: Diet, mental health, and the role of community food programs

Wednesday April 9, 2014 from 12 to 1 p.m. EDT

Free!  Register Here! – https://cfccanada.webex.com/

Join us on Wednesday, April 9th from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. EDT for a webinar pod-cast that will explore the role that a healthy diet and cooking together have in mental health promotion. In this webinar, Karen Davison, a dietitian and leading researcher in the intersection of nutrition and mental health, will share key findings from her work. And Kristyn Dunnion, the Community Kitchen Coordinator at The Stop Community Food Centre, will speak about her experience running food programs for those struggling with mental health and poverty. The webinar will be moderated by Dr. Trace MacKay, Research and Evaluation Coordinator at Community Food Centres Canada.

Key topics we’ll cover in this webinar include: the impact of diet as a prevention and response to mental health challenges, the role that poverty and food insecurity play in mental health, and how food programs can be an important part of the response.
We’d like to cater the webinar to your interests, so please email us questions you’d like us to pose during the webinar and we’ll do our best to get to as many as we can.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Emily at emily@cfccanada.ca.

 

Food Justice, Obesity & the Social Determinants of Health
April 10, 2 p.m. EST
Presented in conjunction with National Public Health WeekShiriki Kumanyika, PhD, MPH, APHA president-electCecilia Martinez, PhD, Center for Earth, Energy & Democracy
Healthy communities depend on food environments that offer all residents access to healthy food choices. Where people live should not dictate how well they can eat, but it often does. APHA President-elect Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, discusses food environments as drivers of obesity and related diseases as well as critical elements in achieving health equity. Speaker Cecilia Martinez, PhD, will discuss community indicators for food justice.

This is part 1 of a 4-part series, co-sponsored by APHA and Healthy Food Action. Register once for all four. You may attend as many as you like, but are not required to attend all four.

 

Collectiveimpactforum.org is now live!

The Collective Impact Forum, an initiative of FSG and the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, is a resource for people and organizations using the collective impact approach to address large-scale social and environmental problems. We aim to increase the effectiveness and adoption of collective impact by providing practitioners with access to the tools, training opportunities, and peer networks they need to be successful in their work.