Blogs

Sam Piha, a veteran of the afterschool field and founder of Temescal Associates, recently developed a paper on intermediaries for Putnam Consulting Group and The Cleveland Foundation. Sam interviewed me by email about the important role that intermediaries play in collective impact efforts. It’s a conversation worth sharing. Stay tuned as we roll out the rest of the conversation in the coming days.

Nicole Yohalem and I started out in this field nearly two decades ago as youth workers who cared deeply about helping young people develop skills that mattered. Working in separate programs (later becoming colleagues at the Forum for Youth Investment), we knew in our hearts that the work done by our nonprofits helped young people gain practical, real-world skills, such as collaboration, communication, perseverance and decision-making. We tried our best to come up with proof to back that belief – but we lacked tools sophisticated enough to make the connections.