Why Understanding Local Context Is Critical for Collective Impact

Understanding a community’s “context” and its readiness for complex change work is a critical factor for launching and advancing collective impact work.

Knowing the local context is necessary to support work with and within a community--who is part of the community, what are they experiencing, and what are their challenges, needs, assets, and opportunities? Where do relationships exist, and is there enough trust among participants to support a foundation for long-term work? Without a basic understanding of  community context, supporting change within a community is difficult and runs the risk of causing more harm than good.

In this episode, we learn about the state-wide initiative Community Organizing for Prevention (COFP), which is working with 30 communities across Colorado to support youth and prevent substance misuse. By coaching and supporting community mobilizers who train local partners to advance collective impact work, COFP strived to create a collaborative infrastructure of support across the state, but early feedback indicated that each community had their own circumstances and needs, and there wasn’t one strategy that would address them all.

We talk with Kit Jones (Colorado School of Public Health) and Marc Morgan (Community Organizing for Prevention, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) about how COFP moved forward with humility and deep listening, evaluating and evolving their strategies to support what their communities needed to equitably move forward. We also discuss how COFP, as a state funder, is working with other funders to sustain the work and create a stronger infrastructure for collective change across Colorado.

Resources and Footnotes

• Community Organizing for Prevention
• Community Organizing for Prevention Evaluation
• Training the Trainer on Policy and Systems Change at the Local Level Full Report and Executive Summary
• Systems Change and Deep Equity by Sheryl Petty and Mark Leach
• The Water of Systems Change

More on Collective Impact

• Infographic: What is Collective Impact?
• Resource List: Getting Started in Collective Impact

The Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.

The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.

Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/