May 06 2016 Weekly Briefing, May 2 – 6
Every week, there are new intersector collaborations surfacing across the United States and new, fascinating research and commentary that provides insight into the intersector — the space where collaboration among government, business, and non-profit sectors enables leaders to share expertise, resources, and authority to address society’s most pressing problems. To keep our readers, practitioners and researchers alike, in the know, we compile a weekly briefing that captures these insights, and we publish it here, on our blog, every Friday. If you like this briefing, you should sign up for our newsletter for more in depth coverage of the intersector.
Collective Impact #ToolBox: Hiring initiative directors
This new resource from Living Cities highlights tips and lessons learned from current leaders of collective impact initiatives. We find the advice to be applicable to any cross-sector collaboration looking to Identify a Manager. The piece highlights qualities to look for in potential candidates and the short- and long-term challenges for this position (“Establishing clarity about the boundaries of the role both empowers the Director to lead and support the collaboration in the way that partners envisioned, and also prevents them from overburdening the person that gets hired with noncritical assignments.”)
State and local officials stress need for better coordination to target cyber disruptions
In the 2016 National Issues Brief from the National Homeland Security Consortium, cybersecurity was named as a top challenge. This article from Route Fifty is one component of its Special Report on cybersecurity: “Sufficiently trained cyber personnel and cross-sector collaboration are high priorities for the state, local, and private officials worried about cyber disruptions.”
From stalemate to solutions
This SSIR piece comes from Karen Abrams Gerber and Andrea Jacobs co-founders of Rally Point for Collaborative Change. They share their thoughts on the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution: “The organization’s unique approach to collaboration enables adversaries to work together and develop breakthrough solutions. It starts with targeting and framing an issue, and then enrolling a wide spectrum of stakeholders. Over an extended period of time, these stakeholders attend a series of expertly facilitated meetings to explore the issue and identify solutions, and finally take joint action.”
Governing the modern city
Brookings’ Bruce Katz and Kemal Derviş approach the topic of city governance from a global perspective in their discussion of Brookings’ Project for 21st Century City Governance. “The goal is to ultimately improve the interactions across cities, higher levels of government, and the private and civic sectors — leading to cities that are governed even more effectively and are more productive, sustainable, and prosperous, with benefits spreading to regions and nations.”
Study finds collaborative efforts among education partners improving outcomes at Carver Academy in Milwaukee
A tri-sector education initiative in Milwaukee is seeing results: “Academics are improving and school climate is more positive at an MPS elementary school due to a collaborative effort of corporate, education, and nonprofit leaders, according to a report released today by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.”