Victoria Plettner-Saunders
Over the last several months I’ve been hearing a lot about “collective impact.” This is the idea that social change can be more deeply rooted and successful if there is a coordinated effort to bring together dozens of organizations through a broad cross-sector approach around a shared agenda. Simply stated, by working collectively we can make a greater impact.
The Winter 2011 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, written by Mark Kramer and John Kania, is aptly titled Collective Impact and it provides the best overview of how this movement is helping communities create meaningful reform around education, health, and welfare issues.
The assumption is that large-scale efforts require multiple stakeholders. What sets collective impact apart from other collaboratives is that the collective impact effort builds a central infrastructure, has a dedicated staff, and holds a shared agenda as well as a system of measuring outcomes. The “collective” is about many and diverse entities working together with a common goal.
A quick Google search brings up dozens of references to articles and websites that describe how collective impact efforts have supported social change.
Locally we’ve talked in some arts education circles about how we might use a collective impact approach to create a better system for educating our children. I’m always interested in arts education being at the table when discussions about education reform take place but so often, it’s not on anyone’s radar except the arts organizations that are dancing as fast as they can to provide programs in schools to fill in gaps or enhance district efforts.
We know that the arts are part of the solution for ensuring that students have a well-rounded education that prepares them to be productive adults in a democratic society. How do we move arts education from being a whole bunch of individual partnerships in schools working to ensure students get it at all, and advocating alone, to participating in or even initiating a broader collective effort to support education reform in a community?
Is the only way to get to the table to build the table ourselves?
What does it mean for a diverse set of collaborators to “share an agenda” and can we arts education advocates participate in a shared agenda that might not be first and foremost about arts education?
When I think about how hard we advocate to keep arts in the curriculum, I wonder, can we check our initial “arts for arts sake” assumptions at the door or let go of our drive to only advocate for standards-based curriculum the way we see it, to adopt a shared agenda in which we are one of three dozen groups in a collective and the goal is more broadly defined?
I’d welcome your thoughts…
Tasty food for thought, Victoria!
I think that by all means we arts education folks should – and must – check our assumptions at the door in order to be open to the change that can accompany a much broader persepective as provided by other groups. We can – and must – be willing to listen to other voices and adopt other points of view… which is a hallmark of creative individuals.
The great thing about building the table ourselves is that we can invite whomever we want. And in the collaborative sense, if one does check assumptions at the door, that may bring a deeper and broader audience to the table. Arts education and arts integration are the links to student engagement and relevancy, so think big: invite the STEM contacts, the workforce development, private businesses and foundation funders and have them sit side by side with the elected officials, school district and the nay-sayers. It’s bound to be an lively conversation.
We believe “parents” are key players! And, yes, “collective impact” is what we are striving for in launching AMP – Association of Music Parents. This is a new, national, non-profit aimed at uniting like minded music parents, industry representatives, and music retailers from across the country for the number one purpose of advocacy. Making sure all students have access to music and the arts and that they remain an integral part of every student’s education.
What a rich dialogue! At FSG, I’ve worked with Collective Impact efforts across a range of youth-centered issue areas, but in my previous life worked in museum education. Arts education has a great opportunity to join the table in broader community-level education CI efforts. For example, in San Diego, arts organizations and arts funders very much see themselves as a partner in / contributor to improving overall education outcomes for kids. Would love to hear more about how you’re thinking about this!
Great topic, Victoria. There’s going to be a session addressing collective impact from a grantmaker’s perspective at the AFTA Convention this year, and I’m honored to be a part of it. If you’re planning to be in San Antonio this summer, I hope to see you there.