I recently wrote an article about our region’s Community Foundation and the work it has been doing for the past twenty years. During its two-decade history, the Foundation has served as a “catalyst and convener” to tackle some of the area’s toughest challenges: access to health care, brain health, literacy, small-town vitality, energy, access to college or training, resources for immigrants, and equity, just to name the more recent subjects.
My takeaway from the conversation was that you don’t have to have the answers in the beginning. The Foundation utilizes community conversations, convenes diverse leadership panels, leverages challenge grants, brings together a wide range of partners, conducts assessments and audits, showcases data, and starts the process of determining solutions to vexing issues.
It’s frequently the case that people agree that X is a problem, but don’t agree on a plan to resolve it. Too often the process gets stuck there and nothing gets over this hump to at least enact something toward a full solution. The Community Foundation serves in the role of the instigator — to use Collective Impact and strategic learning models, system approaches, and good old-fashioned listening to help people articulate the issues and commit to a starting point.
We spend so much time arguing about the problem and what doesn’t work. It would be far more productive for all if you served in a “community foundation” role for however you define your community and get the ball rolling on solutions.
