The Future is Collective Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 2025

Collective action activities Capability Activities Building movementsCreating a shared narrative: Tamarack is creating a shared conversation in Canada about ending poverty in all its forms and the importance of community belonging. Expanding the stakeholder base: Local collaboratives commit to bringing together a diverse stakeholder base, including the public sector, when building their initiatives. Centring lived experience: Tamarack’s approaches are underpinned by a deep commitment to including those with lived experience. Local collaboratives commit to including partners with lived experience in their initiatives. Organizing field-level convenings: Tamarack hosts an annual gathering and biweekly webinars to inspire commitment to change at scale. Regional field-level convenings focus on public policy priorities. Tamarack frequently engages key partners and governments to understand issues, track trends, surface priorities and identify the implications for the field. Celebrating key milestones: Tamarack celebrates the completion of community plans, as well as key milestones and impacts. Tamarack is in the process of determining how to credential competencies within the five practice areas for individuals. Engaging media and journalists: Tamarack engages the media as a tactic in all aspects of their work, especially in their amplifying and advocating work. Tamarack’s approaches and evidence base have been featured in the New York Times, the National Observer and Future of Good, among others. Hosting learning communities and building capacityCodifying a methodology: Tamarack’s Community Pathways Journey Map depicts how communities develop core competencies across the five skill areas and through the four phases of development. The Journey Map enables Tamarack to connect communities with coaches, resources, tools and peer learning cohorts appropriate to their stage of development and learning needs. Capturing and disseminating learnings: Tamarack draws on its work with changemakers and collaboratives to advance evidence-based methodologies and strategies in each of the five skills areas. Tamarack curates an online library to disseminate case studies, tools, guides, and articles to members and non-members. Hosting communities of practice: Tamarack hosts communities of practice to share learnings and evidence and organize across people and places. Tamarack also hosts workshops as places to develop skills and community. Consulting, coaching and training: Tamarack offers coaching and one-on-one support to network members. Tamarack also hosts numerous online courses, webinars, and on-site training to local collaboratives. Strengthening data systemsCreating shared definitions: Tamarack and the network communities are building shared language and understanding around their roles as field catalysts and the systems changes to which they contribute. Developing shared metrics: As part of its strategic planning, the team identifies priorities, as well as activities and metrics to drive these priorities forward. Tamarack’s overall goal is to contribute to Canada’s poverty rate being 5% or less, which equates to 2 million additional people exiting conditions of poverty. Collecting, analysing and sharing data: Tamarack conducts annual network member check-ins using written surveys and phone calls. Staff and members then analyse the data, sense-make and pattern, identify learning for continuous improvement, and recognize opportunities for action. Tamarack reports on progress and impact through an annual report, local reports and external evaluation reports. The Future is Collective: Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 64