More and more initiatives are underway that bring together diverse actors or sectors in order to more effectively coordinate services or take collective action. But the inspiring individuals who are leading collaborative efforts face myriad unique challenges. Collab Corps is a multifaceted platform for developing and supporting cross-sector collaboratives through specialized coaching, expert meeting facilitation and experience design, responsive advising services, and collective advocacy efforts.
Foresight has extensive experience fostering more effective and healthy cross-sector collaboratives (Elevated Chicago, Illinois Agri-Food Alliance, Calument Collaborative to name a few). Contact us to learn more about how your collaborative could benefit from a turn with the Collab Corps.
Services
Responsive Advising
The Collab Corps offers fee-for-service advising in response to your collaboratives’ needs, bringing to bear our expertise and experience, and that of our partners and other technical assistance providers.
What kind of issues would you expect to explore through a consulting engagement? Depending on your collaborative’s developmental stage…
+ For Startup Collaboratives
- Aligning around shared vision, values and aims
- Building a shared understanding of the system
- Assessing the collaborative’s power
- Selecting a relevant structure for implementation
- Recruiting relevant stakeholders
- Clarifying mutual expectations and commitment for collaborative members
- Building infrastructure for ongoing learning and evaluation
- Developing mechanisms to communicate regularly with stakeholders
+ For Growing Collaboratives
- Leadership development
- Self care and boundary setting for collaboratives’ leaders
- Adapting implementation structures in response to continuous change
- Revising and refining a collaborative’s systems analysis and systems change strategies
- Deepening stakeholder trust and accountability
- Process evaluation
+ For Mature Collaboratives
- Succession and sustainability planning
- Developing new initiatives
- Revising and refining systems change strategies in response to new challenges and opportunities
- Impact evaluation
+ For “Collaboratives In Crisis”
- Diagnosing a conflict’s root causes
- Conflict resolution
- Realigning stakeholders around mission/vision, systems analysis, implementation structure, and mutual commitment
Capacity Building Cohorts
Leaders of collaboratives—no matter the sectors they serve or the communities they represent—confront many of the same challenges and frustrations. Additionally, most cross-sector collaboratives are supported by a single backbone leader, limiting their capacity for ongoing learning and improvement.
It is our firm belief that collaborative backbone leaders must be invested in and bolstered over time to help them hone the necessary skills for their role, prevent burn-out, and slow the rate of turnover.
Collab Corps’ Capacity Building Cohorts are a mutual support system for these leaders—so that they can effectively learn from one another—coupled with a responsive curriculum focused on their roles’ unique needs.
We are currently lining up funding for future Cohorts. Contact us for more information, and/or to indicate interest.
Advocacy
Foresight and our partners continue to advocate within the philanthropic and other sectors for greater support for collaboratives as an especially impactful approach to creating meaningful change.
Resources
Prerequisites for Effective Collaboration [PDF]
Elements of a Successful Collaborative [PDF]
Taxonomy: Elements of Collaboratives [PDF]
To help the leaders, stakeholders, and funders of multi-stakeholder collaboratives identify and communicate the form of collaborative undertaking they either are, or wish to become.
Next Resources in the Pipeline…
Developmental Assessment Tool
To help collaboratives identify and refine the elements essential to their success.
“Memorandum of Understanding” Template
To ensure members understand and can commit to an undertaking’s norms and values.
Partnering Collaboratives
In mid-2019, Foresight convened the year-long Collaborative Leaders' Learning Circle (CLLC), composed of the six leaders that now constitute our Collab Corps partners. Together, this cohort deepened their individual skills, addressed organizational challenges, identified shared needs, and collectively advocated for collaboratives.
