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Take Shape Learning Cohort Open for Application
The Forum is inviting communities to apply to join a new technical assistance cohort designed to help you build or strengthen a new leadership council for your cradle-to-career collective impact effort. This 90-day learning community will help local partnerships gather information to make informed decisions about the ideal scope, structure and staffing of their leadership council and lay the foundation for a collective impact approach.
Information Update
February 6, 2014
Improving outcomes for children and youth can’t be done in isolation. Organizations need to work in concert with others. That means more than “let’s get together sometimes.” Effective collective impact approaches means agreeing on what to focus on, working in unison and contributing your own special skills to create something beyond what any of you could do on your own. It also means creating an overarching leadership council – a group to keep an eye on the big picture, connect the work of different groups and make sure there are no gaps.
The Take Shape Learning Cohort is a 90-day intensive coaching experience designed to help you fulfill two key conditions for an effective collective impact approach: mutually reinforcing activities and the backbone support roles. This cohort will help you gather information about your community to guide decisions about the scope, structure and staffing of your overarching leadership council.
As a result of participation, your community will:
- Make important choices about key characteristics of the overarching leadership council (including scope of mission, decision-making authority, etc.).
- Prioritize needed backbone support functions and evaluate local organizations for their capacity to provide this support.
- Complete an initial map of existing efforts in the community and link these to a larger collective impact approach.
Your community will receive:
- Guidance and support through the administration of three tools: Mapping Moving Trains, Backbone Support Diagnostic and the Partnership Characteristics Tool.
- Bi-weekly one-on-one coaching calls with an expert Forum facilitator and trainer.
- Bi-weekly peer network calls with leaders in other communities going through the same process.
- A set of recommendations, summarizing key findings and potential next steps.
- All results and feedback from the surveys and tools used during the 90 days.
Timeline and Cost
Applications are due on Feb. 12, 2014. Cohort selection will be announced on Feb. 19, with a start date of Feb. 24. Participation in the cohort costs $15,750. Site visits and additional facilitation are available at an additional cost.
Application and Additional Questions
If you are interested in applying or would like more information, please contact Ian Faigley.