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4. Working Together and Taking Collective Action

Once participants agree on the collaboration’s vision and goals, it is time to put the plan into practice, which involves working together on collaborative strategies. At this point in community systems development work, participating organizations must develop mechanisms to facilitate ongoing collaboration with other organizations while distributing responsibilities equitably among partners. Collaborators commit to specific next steps, implement strong communication strategies, and seek community buy-in during implementation of the shared activities in the strategic plan, or work plan. This involves finding ways to share information, share resources, find sources of funding and support for collaborative activities, and involve the community in meaningful ways.

Contents

County Health Rankings and Roadmaps: Work Together

Planning Tool June 7, 2022

The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a program of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, works to improve health outcomes for all and to close the health disparities between those with the most and least opportunities for good health. The purpose of this resource is to support building and sustaining partnerships that reflect the diversity of communities to collaboratively implement strategies that result in meaningful change.

Zero to Three: A Community Framework for Early Childhood Collaboration Developed by the Model Convening Project

Planning Tool June 7, 2022

The Community Framework for Early Childhood Collaboration, developed by the Model Convening Project provides an example of communities working together with multiple home visiting partners. This site also offers a series of guides and briefs (such as Public Policy Advocacy for Early Childhood and Advancing Racial Equity in Early Childhood Systems), that can be used to deepen trust, engagement, and synergy between and among all partners in a community working to support young children and families. The Story Bank also highlights detailed accounts from communities on implementing various aspects of the framework, including families’ perspectives on early childhood collaboration.

National Coalition for Infants and Toddlers: Execute the Work

Planning Tool June 7, 2022

This resource from the National Collaborative for Infants and Toddlers provides useful questions to ask to help your community assess readiness for collective action as well as tools to use and examples in practice.

Hand in Hand: Public Policy Advocacy for Early Childhood

Planning Tool June 7, 2022

This brief describes the experiences of a broad-based coalition of advocates in Washington, DC who were focused on policy. These organizations supported the Birth-to-Three for All DC Act of 2018 through its passage and are now engaged in advocating for additional funding as well as monitoring implementation of the comprehensive road-map laid out in the legislation. The brief also identifies other public policy efforts by the state of Colorado and by the counties of Palm Beach (Florida) and Monroe (New York).

CIVICUS Internal Communication Toolkit

Planning Tool June 7, 2022

This toolkit is designed to support the development of an INTERNAL communication strategy – though it is written for an organization it can easily be adapted to developing an internal communication strategy within a coalition or collaborative. See the appendices for a sample internal communication survey and a sample internal communication strategy.

Communications and Engagement Workbook: Plan your communications campaign

Planning Tool June 7, 2022

Plan your communications campaign: This five-step process is designed to help build a thoughtful and thorough EXTERNAL campaign. This resource, which includes resources, checklists and supports users to develop an action plan, was provided as a reference for Race to the Top–Early Learning Challenge grantees and others.