Initiatives

First 2000 Days Network

Announcement

We hold capacity building workshops open to the public on a regular basis. Please check our website calendar for more details. Everyone is welcome to participate!

Blythe Butler

The First 2000 Days Network

Role: Project Page Administrator

Paxton Bruce

Mount Royal University

Role: Backbone

See All

About this Initiative

Year Started:

2012

Initiative stage:

Organizing for Impact

Location:

Calgary & Area, Alberta, Canada, Prairie & Northern Region (AB, SK, MB, YT, NT, NU)

Initiative Purpose and Goals:

The First 2000 Days Network acts as a catalyst for linking, aligning and leveraging efforts in the Early Childhood Development system to enable collective action toward improving ECD outcomes. The Network focuses on how the ECD system works together to improve systems-level change. The Network’s approach is guided by two main frameworks:

• Collective Impact: "... an innovative and structured approach to making collaboration work across government, business, philanthropy, non-profit organisations and citizens to achieve significant and lasting social change."
• Network Theory: A framework for understanding how to cultivate a network mindset to effectively build the capacity of networks to support social change.

The First 2000 Days Network exists to support innovation within the ECD sector using these two approaches.

We are happy to share our Strategic Development Plan. Please contact Blythe at info@2000days.ca for more information.

Initiative website:

http://www.2000days.ca

Collective Impact Elements in Place

Common Agenda

Continuous Communication

Shared Measurement

Backbone Support

Mutually Reinforcing Activities

Backbone Support

Organizations serving in the Backbone Role

We are supported by a variety of individuals and organizations who contribute to various backbone functions. We have a pool of independent consultants with long histories in the early childhood development sector, the United Way of Calgary & Area, funders, local neighborhood coalitions, early years agencies and individuals all participating in some way.

We have been incubated as an initiative by Calgary Reads, a local literacy organization who has supported the Network's existence and provides organizational and logistical support.

Backbone structure

Very organic, open membership mixed with some funded positions. No full time resource for any given function, the responsibilites are distributed and co-owned.

Measures of Success

The Network’s objectives focus on how stakeholders work together to improve ECD outcomes as well as on what is achieved. To assess the 'how' and the 'what', the Network continually evaluates its activities to ensure that it is functioning as a Collective Impact & Network entity influencing social change to improve ECD outcomes. Adaptive learning is one of the strategies for the Network to achieve intended objectives and it also underscores its philosophy.

The Network has identified the Strengthening Families framework developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy as a Shared Measurement ‘lens’ with which to understand progress toward social change in the ECD system. The rationale for using the Strengthening Families framework as a guide for Shared Measurement is because it:

• Is researched and evidence-based
• Supports mid-term, proximate measures for progress in Early Childhood Development
• Supports the population-level outcomes of the EDI
• Is reflected in Alberta’s ‘Together We Raise Tomorrow” ECD strategy
• Is used by a variety of local community organizations for their own assessments and is already recognized as a legitimate tool.

The Strengthening Families approach will help the Network to measure the steps that need to be taken in order to achieve population-level change. The network intends to use this approach in two distinct ways:
1. Use the five factors outlined in the framework to determine whether there is movement (at the organizational, community and agency level) toward our ultimate goal. This will allow the network to tell a story of the ECD landscape in Calgary and Area using consistent, meaningful language.
2. Use the resources developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy to guide organizations, community groups or agencies to build capacity in moving towards a more aligned approach to measurement.

It is essential to note that given the Network’s current stage of organizational maturity, we are primarily using the Shared Measurement component of the Collective Impact framework as a driver for engagement and capacity building efforts.

We are happy to share our Learning and Evaluation plan. Please contact Blythe at info@2000days.ca for more information

Initiative Partners and Governance

Sectors Engaged

Nonprofit

Philanthropic Funders

Public Sector

Broader Community/People with Lived Experience

Initiative governance

We have:

The Backbone functions

Network leadership

Network Change Leads

Network participants

Network Change Collectives

all contributing to decision making and governance functions in different contexts.

Resources

Merging Collective Impact and Network Theory: A Case Study

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