Our Collective Approach

Tackling Big Challenges Together

Downtown Calgary skyline at sunset with the Bow River and autumn trees in the foreground.

Dementia Network Calgary takes a collective impact approach to achieving its strategic priorities.

Our Approach

Learning from and drawing on a long history of community organizing and social movements, collective impact emerged in the early 2000s as a formal framework to address complex social challenges.

Since then, this framework has been tested and adapted, articulated most recently by practitioners Mark Cabaj and Liz Weaver in their paper Collective Impact 3.0 (Tamarack Institute, 2016):

1

Shared Aspiration

Create and hold a bold vision for change that mobilizes the energies of a large and diverse network of people.

2

Strategic Learning

Use manageable, real-time measurement and feedback processes to support effective sense-making, decision-making and evaluation of impact.

3

Focus on High-Leverage Strategies

See beyond collaboration to where knowledge, networks, and resources exists for local actors to work together or independently on high leverage opportunities for change.

4

Authentic Community Engagement

Ensure authentic and inclusive involvement of a broad spectrum of system stakeholders, particularly those most affected by complex issues.

5

A Container for Change

Build a strong "container" of trust and empathy within which courageous conversations and power differences between stakeholders can be navigated. Facilitate participants' inner journeys of change, mobilize a diverse group of funders and stewards, and provide support for self-renewal and sustainment.
Resources

Knowledge Hub: Strategies & Solutions

Explore professional resources, reports, and research about dementia; learn more about systems change and collective impact approaches.