Collective Impact Network (2017-2024)

 

Overview

The Collective Impact Network (CIN) was a Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) sponsored initiative being co-led by PAN acting as the backbone organization that finished its work in June 2024.

Our goal was to facilitate collaboration on priority areas that will best support people living with HIV and hepatitis C and the front-line organizations that serve them.

It consisted of seven PHSA-contracted organizations that are support the community-based response to HIV and hepatitis C, alongside the PHSA, represented and administratively supported by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), with the BC Women’s Hospital in a co-visioning role. The FNHA was also represented at the table.

Our Priorities

1. Increase involvement of People with Lived/Living Experience (PWLE);

2. Increase program equity and services for HIV and hepatitis C; and across BC (urban, suburban, rural and remote locations);

3. Harm Reduction;

4. Reducing Stigma;

5. Commitment to Truth and Reconciliation.

 

Work of the Collective Impact Network

Having devised a foundational structure to plan for core activities, such as quarterly meetings, the CIN had its inaugural meeting in February 2017. By May, we had defined our priorities and agreed upon our common agenda/ priorities.

For the network, PAN has developed a tool for measuring results consistently and we are using feedback to finalize this.  Adopting shared measurement tools to track the impact of our sector’s collective efforts responding to HIV, hepatitis C and related conditions is key to tracking our shared successes and demonstrating the value of the work we all do. PAN is pleased to be working alongside of the PHSA and CIN Members to build shared measurement frameworks and collect data using a set of common measures.

We are also coordinating mutually reinforcing activities – so far, for the first two priority areas, including Asset mapping for peer-based work and the formation of a hepatitis C working group.  This working group has helped us understand better the immediate needs for hepatitis C program equity and it has led to more mapping and needs assessment.  PAN has also coordinated an internal application process for the PHSA’s Innovation Fund to help kick start novel programs within the network that are aligned with our common agenda.  From meetings to activity planning to administrating the Innovation Fund, all are facilitated by PAN’s backbone role in continuous communication.

 

CIN final phase (Sept 2022 – June 2024):

In September 2022, we began the final stage of this cycle of the CIN.  We met around the following 3 areas: PIVOT-led work; Impactful provincial policy change work/advocacy (led by PAN); and more PWLLE into programming and employment, and/or centering PWLLE voices in advocacy (led by PAN). In March 2023, all organizations decided to focus on the third area. The CIN finished strongly by producing two resources.

Firstly, the workbook Embedding Peer-Delivered Services in CBOs describes how integrating peer-delivered services requires a commitment to principles, practices, and policies that prioritize equity, collaboration, and deep respect. The workbook also provides easy-to-use tools and information for community-based organizations to judge organizational readiness and to help inform the hiring, onboarding, and ongoing support and supervision of peers.

The Peer Employment Resource Database is a collection of 120+ peer-reviewed papers, and grey literature including white papers, reports, and other relevant materials. They offer both theoretical and practical insights into effective practices, policies, and principles for peer engagement and employment within CBOs. We want to express our gratitude to Luminate Wellness, PAN members and allies, as well as the peer advisors and consultants that inspired, informed, and reviewed these resources

CIN Workgroups (Sept 2020 – March 2022):

  • CBRC and YouthCO – Community of Practice for Indigenous staff members – This project aims to support Indigenous leadership, by establishing a Community of Practice for Indigenous staff members focusing on HIV/hepatitis C. They may work in educator, manager, or program roles.
  • Central Interior Native Health Society – Safe Space in Healthcare and Advocacy: This project will determine if the CINHS clinic and staff are providing culturally-safe medical and psychosocial support to their vulnerable populations, and not creating barriers to accessing care and services, as well as exploring how to re-engage clients who are lost to care. PWLE will lead groups of clients into walkthroughs of the entire clinic, and then facilitate a discussion about cultural safety and respect.
  • Options for Sexual Health – Knowledge Exchange and Translation: Hiring a provincial outreach worker and peer support worker will better connect Options to their connected HIV/hepatitis C direct service organizations, and looks to provide virtual and ‘lunch and learn’ educational opportunities.
  • BCHN – Community Pre-Summit Project: CanHepC is now in an implementation phase for their Blueprint to inform hepatitis C elimination efforts in CanadaThe project’s aim is to ensure robust community voice in the Summit, through bringing CBO staff (paid, volunteer, peer) together, through a combination of virtual focus groups and online surveys over the fall and early winter.
  • PIVOT – Education and Outreach: Following up from Project Inclusion: Confronting anti-homeless & anti-substance user stigma in BCthis project has the goal to address upstream barriers to effective HIV and HCV prevention, treatment, and care, by prioritizing education and outreach to Indigenous communities, peer-led groups, and stakeholders who identify as people with lived experience.
  • PAN – Organizational Stigma Assessment Tool: Rooted in work from the Stigma Index project, PAN held a Deliberative Dialogue in November 2019. Participants stressed the need for anti-stigma interventions and the importance of centering people with lived/living experiences (PWLE) in this work, including a need to support service providers engaging with priority populations. They conceptualized a learning-based assessment and planning tool for organizations, and this project seeks to move this work forward.

CIN Workgroups (Sept 2018 – March 2020):

Work team 1: Increase the involvement of PWLE (Lead Agency: PHCN. Team: PAN, PLBC, FFL)

Successes: The purpose of this project is to increase meaningful involvement of people with lived experience (PWLE) of HIV and hepatitis C by exploring the differences between ‘best practices’ and the working realities in community-based organizations (CBOs) and health authorities (HA) across the province.  During this period PAN has been working with PHCN to finalize the survey on Survey Monkey. We’re aiming to launch the survey in the coming months (when it makes sense with the COVID-19 crisis) and at that time we’ll reach out to our CIN colleagues to help us get the survey out to individuals with lived experience who work in organizations as peers, to leadership within those organizations and to health authorities.

Specific challenges: Increase the involvement of PWLE – here, the project was hampered by capacity and then COVID-19.

CIN Workgroup 1 – PWLE – Draft Workplan

Work team 2: Increase program equity and services across BC (Lead Agencies: Options, CBRC. Team: YouthCO, PHCN, CINHS, FFL)

Success was primarily found in our individual organizations in building trust and connections with rural communities through our work outside of this team.

Specific challenges: Increase program equity and services across BC – early on, the team did not have any uptakes to their offer of helping organizations through the application process for the Innovation funds. They had also planned to compile a list of grant-writing resources to be shared with various organizations, but this task has been incomplete. When they first met they talked about what it would look like and how manageable it would be to share better and emerging practices from urban and rural settings but that this seemed to be too great a task for the group to take on.

CIN Workgroup 2 – Geo Equity – Draft Workplan

Work team 3: Stigma reduction (Lead Agencies: PLBC, YouthCO; Team: Options, CBRC, PAN, PIVOT)

Successes: This team, led by YouthCO, supported ACPNet on African, Caribbean and Black Canadian HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (February 7th) with an HIV awareness event at Surrey Library to help stop stigma and end prejudice towards those of us living with HIV.

On December 2nd, the team (YouthCO and PLBC) worked with ACPNet to host a drop in table at the Jim Pattison Outpatient Clinic around World AIDS Day.

Specific challenges: Stigma reduction – they made progress with SMH, and then the presentation was cancelled due to COVID-19, and they were not able to do it online because clinical staff do not all have their own workstation so they would have to be in shared space to access it that way.  This team was also working with smaller, attainable goals, as it had been a struggle earlier to land on a project (as reported before).

2019-09 CIN WG 3 Stigma Workplan

CIN Workgroups (May 2017 – Sept 2018)

Hep C caucus: Increase program equity and services for HIV and hepatitis C (Lead Agency: PHCN)

The Hep C Caucus was the first ‘work group’ of the Collective Impact Network, the forerunner of how the work of the CIN would later change.

Led by PHCN, it formed in the summer of 2017 as a sub-group of the CIN wanting to focus on the network’s established priority to “Increase program equity and services for HIV and hepatitis C”. The consultations led to a applying successfully for a PHSA Innovation Fund grant for a project called the Pacific Hepatitis C Network’s Hep C Resources in BC project.

The project came about because we wanted to know more about where gaps exist in hepatitis C resources and advocacy across BC, as well as how people prefer to access information about hepatitis C and what kind of information needs they have. The project wrapped up in the Spring 2018 and its finding shared, with the Caucus reconvening to examine the results. With limited resources, the CIN decided to focus on other priorities in Sep 2018 for its work groups.

2018 Survey results  HepCResources_Report2018_FV | HepCResources_ReportSummary2018_FV | HepCResourcesMatrix_April2018 | PHCN HepCTxFacts Overview

This needs assessment project (and resource mapping) has since spawned a number of projects and raised advocacy items:

  • PAN/PHCN joint advocacy to Minister Dix (Ministry of Health)
  • Hep C Treatment Facts and Pathways project.
  • Two other IF projects addressing HCV include PHCN’s Peer Navigation Project and YouthCO’s HIV and Hep C Care for Trans, Non-Binary, and Two-Spirit Youth Project (PCHN is a partner).

Work team: Increase the involvement of PWLE 

Peer-Based Work Mapping Project – became Resource building

 

How did the Collective Impact Network function?

The diagram (below) illustrates how that works. The PHSA (in pink) funds and co-leads the venture, and PAN (marked with the logo) has dual roles to build capacity in the sector and provide CIN leadership and ‘backbone’. From left to right, by column:

In green, the PHSA service components drive all the funding for community agencies that make up the CIN. These components consist of advocacy, support, prevention and capacity building. In blue, we see the breakdown of the CIN – its leadership, meetings, support and related funding opportunities. In purple, we see how PWLE are invited to participate in all aspects of the CIN and is guided by the principles of GIPA/MEPA, the Hep C Manifesto and Nothing About Us Without Us.

In orange, we see the mutually reinforcing activities of the network. These primarily consist of team projects but also include other partner-driven actions (like advocacy, short-term innovation projects and other partnerships between CIN agencies).

 

What is the Collective Impact model?

Collective Impact is a framework to tackle deeply entrenched and complex social problems. It is an innovative and structured approach to making collaboration work across government, business, philanthropy, non-profit organizations and citizens to achieve significant and lasting social change.

The Collective Impact approach is premised on the belief that no single policy, government department, organization or program can tackle or solve the increasingly complex social problems we face as a society.  The approach calls for multiple organizations or entities from different sectors to abandon their own agenda in favour of a common agenda, shared measurement and alignment of effort.

Unlike collaboration or partnership, Collective Impact initiatives have centralized infrastructure – known as a backbone organization – with dedicated staff whose role is to help participating organizations shift from acting alone to acting in concert.

John Kania & Mark Kramer first wrote about collective impact in the Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2011 and identified five key elements:

1. All participants have a common agenda for change including a shared understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through agreed upon actions.

2. Collecting data and measuring results consistently across all the participants ensures shared measurement for alignment and accountability.

3. A plan of action that outlines and coordinates mutually reinforcing activities for each participant.

4. Open and continuous communication is needed across the many players to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and create common motivation.

5. A backbone organization(s) with staff and specific set of skills to serve the entire initiative and coordinate participating organizations and agencies.

“… we believe that there is no other way society will achieve large-scale progress against the urgent and complex problems of our time, unless a collective impact approach becomes the accepted way of doing business.” John Kania & Mark Kramer

In addition, Collective Impact Efforts Center Equity and collaboratives pursue equity through five strategies. Each strategy is important and should be woven into the implementation of the five conditions listed above.

  • Ground the work in data and context, and target solutions
  • Focus on systems change, in addition to programs and services
  • Shift power within the collaborative
  • Listen to and act with community
  • Build equity leadership and accountability

 

 

For more information, please contact Simon Goff, Executive Administrator and Collective Impact Coordinator.

 

Related links:

PAN-AGM-2024-Annual-Report

CIN Year in Review 2022-2023

CIN Year in Review 2021-2022

CIN Year in Review 2020-2021

CIN Year in Review 2019-2020

CIN Year in Review 2018-2019

 

If you are a member of the Collective Impact Network please find all meeting materials, minutes, presentations and work team information here.

 

Image: Collective Impact Model (Clear Impact)