August 2023

Who has the agency to lead a community climate change initiative? For example, I am thinking of a group of like-minded, determined citizens coming together and forming a core group that links or partners with the government or other supporting groups to achieve specific climate action. As such, it is argued that citizen-led initiatives are the highest level of citizen power and control (Igalla et al., 2019). In addition, a climate change citizen-led initiative could take a “collective impact approach” (Hanleybrown et al., 2012, p. 1). A collective impact approach allows society to “achieve large-scale progress against urgent and complex problems (Hanleybrown et al., 2012, p. 6). Activating the highest level of citizen power to apply against society’s multiple crises seems like a good fit, but this does not come without challenges.

As the name implies, collective impact is based on a framework for multiple organizations to work across sectors to coordinate their action, share lessons learned, and optimize effort and success rates (Hanelybrown et al., 2012). The climate action initiative I am considering includes urban ecological biodiversity, equitable access to biodiverse urban areas, and reconciliation through an Indigenous Informed approach, thereby achieving a collective impact. However, this is a significant challenge for a citizen-led or grassroots initiative, and this blog post is about the challenges.

Collective Impact Approach

While researching the challenges of citizen-led initiatives, I found insights from the collective impact approach helpful to consider. The collective impact approach was conceived to coordinate and increase the impact of various stakeholders, partners, agencies, sponsors, and funders brought together to make a social change (Hanleybrown et al., 2012). To that end, the collective impact approach recommends five essential principles for initiative collaboration that includes setting a strategic direction or common goal, agreeing on how to track progress, capitalizing on the expertise of those involved, communicating consistently, and maintaining dedicated resources (ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability Canada, n.d.b., p. 7). Figure 6 provides a graphical representation of the core principles. Underpinning the effort is the coordination by a backbone organization or agency (Hanleybrown et al., 2012).

Figure 6

Five Core Principles for “Collective Impact”

Note – From Engaging Meaningfully: Leveraging Community Engagement to Advance Implementation, Advancing Adaptation Project, by ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability Canada. (n.d.). Advancing Adaptation Project. https://icleicanada.org/project/engaging-meaningfully/

Are There Perils Leading with Backbone?

A citizen-led initiative or non-profit could act as the backbone agency providing clear focus, facilitation, and the ability to work across organizations (Hanelybrown et al., 2012). But it could also be perilously challenging for grassroots organizations. The leader must be adaptive and skilled to get all parties to act together. Conversely, the leader must have the grace and insight to know when to step back to let success be shared. This is not the place for autocratic leaders (Igalla et al., 2019).

Unfortunately, efforts expended for backbone organizing can be invisible (especially if the leader is stepping back to let others take the credit for success) or undervalued, resulting in difficulty getting sustainable funding as the work can be seen as overhead (Hanelybrown et al., 2012). There may also be the perception that this role competes with other agencies with similar or parallel objectives. However, “the expectation that collaboration can occur without a supporting infrastructure is one of the most frequent reasons why it fails” (Hanelybrown et al., 2012, p. 6). Collaboration takes time, as does planning, facilitating, reporting, and communicating about the initiative.

Regardless of the framework, there needs to be energy and capacity from the volunteers to lead the citizen-led initiative. When this work is not funded or resourced sufficiently, the initiative has a higher failure rate (Igalla et al., 2019). Inadequate funding or resources for operational costs can be a challenge and is something that municipalities or other levels of government could help to incentivize. Ironically, although government involvement is often an essential part of an initiative, it can impede success due to bureaucratic demands, administrative burdens and timelines that best suit government fiscal responsibilities (Igalla et al., 2019).

Human Relations – by Women

As such, these projects require more than process and funding; the vital component is human relationships (Fox et al., 2023). Interestingly, female-organized citizen initiatives demonstrate care for human relationships that positively facilitate citizen-led initiatives (Igalla et al., 2019). Additionally, feminist research shows that communally sourced projects “centering women and promoting a non-hierarchical structure” (Fox et al., 2023) are effective. Fox et al. (2023) re-envisions a quilt of effort replacing the backbone organization. Regardless, the emphasis should be on equity within the partnerships for the people involved, in addition to the process outlined by the collective impact approach. Developing and maintaining relationships, as with most human endeavours, is a fundament challenge for citizen-led projects.

Trusting and Cooperative Relationships Build Social Capital Which Provides the Structure for Success

Therefore, the citizen-led initiative must build and sustain trusting relationships to collaborate effectively around a shared goal (Fox et al., 2023). This develops the social capital to sustain the project (Igalla et al., 2019) and, in my view, provides the structure to overcome the challenges. The collective impact approach provides foundational principles to help citizen-led initiatives foster relationship building. Ultimately building relationships will enable successful outcomes.

Reference

Fox, A., Mwangi, C. G., Pachucki, M., Wells, R., Dasgupta, B., Thoma, H., Dunton, S., & Kimball, E. (2023). Rethinking Backbones in Collective Impact: Examining a Broadening STEM Participation Program as a Feminist Matrix Organization. Innovative Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-023-09660-x

Hanelybrown, F., Kania, J. & Kramer, M. (2012). Channeling change: Making collective impact work. Stanford Social Innovation Review.  https://ssir.org/articles/entry/channeling_change_making_collective_impact_work

ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability Canada. (n.d.b.). Engaging Meaningfully: Leveraging Community Engagement to Advance Implementation, Advancing Adaptation Project. https://icleicanada.org/project/engaging-meaningfully/

Igalla, M., Edelenbos, J., & van Meerkerk, I. (2019). Citizens in action, what do they accomplish? A systematic literature review of citizen initiatives, their main characteristics, outcomes, and factors. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 30(5), 1176–1194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-019-00129-0