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Achieving collective impact: Confessions of a “backbone” organization
As many communities are adopting a multi-sectoral approach to creating meaningful and broad-based systems change in response to the obesity epidemic, more is being learned about what works—and what doesn't work—to make these initiatives successful. For collaborations to thrive, they require a supportive infrastructure and a “backbone” organization to serve as a neutral manager, facilitator, and convener.
The Initiative is facilitated by Community Health Improvement Partners (CHIP), a non-profit organization that assesses and addresses priority health needs through collaboration. Using its model of collaboration, CHIP serves as the backbone organization for the Initiative and provides dedicated staff to serve in a supportive role.
Using the Initiative as an example, this session will describe the characteristics of successful collaboratives and explore how these conditions have been effectively applied in San Diego. We will examine the role of the backbone organization, describe how staff can support collective impact, and recommend specific steps for success.
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health
Learning Objectives:
Define a collective impact initiative.
Identify the conditions necessary for successful collective impact.
Describe the roles of an effective backbone support organization.
Keywords: Collaboration, Obesity
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have established and served as the backbone organizer of the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative since 2006. The Initiative is a nationally recognized multi-sector collective impact initiative with the common agenda of reducing and preventing childhood obesity in San Diego County through advocacy, policy development and environmental change.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.