The Future is Collective Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 2025

Impact 40% of Built for Zero communities reduced homelessness for veterans or people who have experienced chronic homelessness in a year where overall numbers were on the rise. 1,635 affordable homes have been acquired across 14 properties in nine housing markets through the social impact investment model.15 communities have made homelessness rare and brief for at least one population, with 13 achieving this for veteran homelessness, five solving chronic homelessness, and three ending both. 192,000 people have been housed in Built for Zero communities (as of 2024). Supporting infrastructure Governance and participation Community Solutions is overseen by a voluntary fiduciary board of directors. Currently, the board has eight members and will soon grow to 11 members. The board also oversees the community investment fund (regranting activities) and the social impact real estate fund. Day-to-day operations are led by the executive and leadership teams. Community Solutions is in the process of establishing an advisory council to support its expanded organizing and communications strategy. Team culture and competencies Competencies: Community Solutions focuses on a set of core competencies and values for their team. All team members receive training on the foundational areas of improvement science, human-centred design, facilitation, data analysis and project management. Values: The organization draws on its values to guide performance planning and professional development. These values include: 1) solve for impossible; 2) learn by doing; 3) focus on the user; 4) face what is not working, don’t let failure keep one from moving forward; 5) operate from generosity; 6) take ownership of what happens; 7) embrace appreciation, humour and joy; and 8) promote racial equity. Collaborative and adaptive learning: Teams at Community Solutions use a general strategic planning format and a six-month cadence for learning and adaptation. Teams set longer-term goals and short-term milestones that are assessed every six months for course corrections to strategy. Teams capture their strategies in an improvement planning tool called a “driver diagram” which visually displays the drivers of project achievement. Enabling technology Technology is a critical enabling factor to both Community Solutions’ internal work as well as their direct support of communities. HMIS are essential to community coordination and measurement. The software that enables HMIS needs to be designed with the user in mind, be capable of measuring population-level trends (not only monitor programme participation by individual clients), and enable data visualizations and built-in reports that support sense-making and data-driven decision- making. Internally, Community Solutions relies on data visualization software, a cloud-based customer relationships platform, business intelligence and machine learning (ML) platforms. The Future is Collective: Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 19