In Finland, the wellbeing of children, young people and families has traditionally been promoted through separate systems: schools promote education, healthcare services treat illnesses and social welfare services solve social problems. While all these services have been success stories when they were introduced, they cannot meet the complex challenges of today’s world separately.

We need cooperation across sectors that supports the coping of children and young people in a preventive and comprehensive manner, instead of a fragmented, siloed and delayed approach to problem-solving.

In collective impact work, organisations, municipalities, parishes and wellbeing services counties work together to develop local solutions based on research. Itla support regions carrying out collective impact work and promotes the dissemination of the approach throughout Finland.

Jointly agreed procedures and a joint management team as cornerstones

Collective impact is a research-based, concrete way of renewing the service system and achieving local and national strategic goals. It has been applied around the world to solve widespread complex problems, from famine to the AIDS epidemic. Itla uses collective impact to reform the service system for families with children on the terms of children and families, with the foundation Brita Maria Renlunds Minne sr. and the University of Oulu as our partners.

The cornerstones of the work are common procedures agreed by professionals and other stakeholders in different fields and a joint management team that supports the work. A shared understanding of the phenomena that need to be solved and the diverse solutions developed together by the stakeholders are at the core of the work. The development work is based on the framework for collective impact (Kania & Kramer, 2011), systems theory and strengthening the resilience of children and young people.

The five conditions of collective impact

1. COMMON AGENDA

Coming together to collectively define the problem and create a shared vision to solve it.

2. MUTUALLY REINFORCING ACTIVITIES

Coordinating collective efforts to maximize the end result based on continuous evaluation/feedback.

3. SHARED MEASUREMENT

Agreeing to track progress in the same way, which allows for continuous improvement.

4. CONTINUOUS COMMUNICATION

Building trust, motivation, and relationships among all participants.

5. BACKBONE SUPPORT

Having a team dedicated to orchestrating and strengthening the work of the group and supporting learning.

Figure: The Five Conditions of Collective Impact (Source: Kania & Kramer, 2011; Stachowiak et al., 2018. Captions in the figure: Collective Impact Forum).