DO/ABLE partners with United Way Greater Toronto, City of Toronto, and networks of 50+ agencies to continue their collective impact after the pandemic.
By Kris Cummings & Suhanya Ketheeswaran
The Community Coordination Plan (CCP): a network born of crisis
In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit, United Way Greater Toronto and the City of Toronto came together to support clusters of organizations across Toronto. Each cluster was made up of dozens of agencies, some of which were collaborating for the very first time, and the initiative became known as the Community Coordination Plan (CCP). Together, the CCP responded to the urgent and emerging needs of local residents during the pandemic, with an emphasis on equity-deserving communities.
Discerning a path forward as the pandemic becomes less urgent
The challenge: In 2022, as the pandemic was becoming less of a burning issue, those who had been involved in the CCP wanted to determine how they could continue working together, including in ways that would centre partnership and equity. The group sensed they had done great work together and could do so again in the future. But they needed to take stock and determine a purpose and a path forward.
The solution: United Way Greater Toronto and City of Toronto engaged DO/ABLE as a third party consultant to facilitate the process of (a) discerning what had been learned and (b) formulating recommendations for what could come next.
As a first step, DO/ABLE developed and implemented an engagement process that brought together representative voices from across the clusters and the collaborative as a whole. This provided the group with an opportunity to take stock of their experiences, reflect on key learnings, and begin to imagine what a shared purpose and path forward could continue to be.
DO/ABLE then supported the backbone partners (City of Toronto and United Way Greater Toronto) through a sense-making process to determine a model for the CCP moving forward. This model included a new working purpose and structure, as well as the backbone supports needed to ensure success.
The outcome: a future state model for the Community Coordination Plan (CCP) that can maintain its relevance and drive impact
As we wrapped up this project, the teams at United Way Greater Toronto and City of Toronto identified a number of benefits:
- collective reflection, contemplation, and discernment of a path forward
- connecting the dots between experiences and ideas for moving forward, which helped to define the potential structure, roles, responsibilities, and enabling supports
- a viable purpose and future state model for moving forward
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