Collective impact

Collective impact occurs when numerous community stakeholders work together using a shared action plan and indicators to solve a social problem.

Determinants

Unlike isolated impact, in which different stakeholders conduct independent initiatives, the collective impact model focuses on cohesion.

Collective impact enhances the effects of actions aimed at solving complex social issues and leads to more significant progress.

Principles | Collective impact and school perseverance | Examples

The principles of collective impact

There are five conditions for collective impact:

Shared action plan
Partners have a shared understanding of the problem and agree on collaborative strategies to solve it.

Shared evaluation system
Partners use shared indicators and periodically measure the results of various participants to monitor the progress of the process and its actions.

Mutually supportive actions
Partners carry out actions that are specific to their individual areas of expertise but that also complement other partners’ actions.

Ongoing communications
Partners foster open discussion to build a harmonious relationship and ensure that mobilization and cohesion is maintained.

Support structure
Partners can rely on a supporting infrastructure to ensure that resources to coordinate and support their efforts are always available.

To increase the success of collective impact, it is important to both focus on existing foundations—i.e., to build on the relationships and partnerships already in place—and also to explore new and promising courses of action.

Collective impact on school perseverance

Given the complex nature of the school perseverance issue and its many contributing factors, only structured joint action can bring out long-lasting changes that will benefit young people.

To bring about these changes, contributions from different sectors must dovetail and complement one another.

The dropout problem is not just an educational problem, it is a societal problem, so the contribution of all community stakeholders is needed to support school perseverance and educational success among young people.