Allegheny Health Network’s Post

I recently had the pleasure of attending the "Fundamentally Different" event on public services hosted by the brilliant Capacity in Liverpool. This explored the emerging space for innovation. Public service reform has been left-for-dead, at least at national level, in recent years but now being prodded awake by the prospect of a Labour Party (UK) Government short on money and therefore hand-forced on reform. One of the best keynotes was from James Plunkett, author of 'End State: 9 Ways Society is Broken and How We Fix it'. James told us how the mass-produced models for solving socal problems of the last 150 years - which gaves us miracles like modern sewers and an NHS - were not working for today's stubborn problems like mental ill-health and loneliness. Regardless of money spent, levers cannot be pulled by the administrative state that work. Instead, we have to pull on many different levers, in different places - but these tend to be neither centralised nor one-size-fits all. For Governments this is hard - they want solutions which can be delivered everywhere and for which someone is accountable. They don't want 'mess', even good mess. The challenge Capacity and its spin-out ventures like @We Are Juno is to create good mess, even if it tangles with the cookie-cutter preferences of the state. This is never easy. We Are Juno CIC business lives in a world of OFSTED and a host of laws designed to protect our most vulnerable children. To dance differently in this space requires mindfulness that 'being the change we want to see' also means keeping to State-DJs backbeat. I find the subject of future public services a bit painful. For most of my adult life, they have been deeply deficient when it comes to the most vulnerable. Books, conferences, think-tanks and innovative pilots have all nibbling away for donkey's years, mostly at the margins. Moving from where we are now to a more organic and innovative approach to mass public service provision feels like the move from Betamax to AI!! It could take another 50 years, particularly inthe institutional ghost-ships of large government departments and Town Halls, full of spirits past and interests present. However, Capacity's conference was very good. It featured talented public servants doing real things that were challenging the mainstream, not just messing at the edges. You could really tell that these people had worked in other sectors, they brought an openness of approach that you tend not to find that often in dyed-in-the-wool state factotums. But othing quite revs me up like being in the room with fantastic people who have not lost their fire. Bring it all on! #publicservicereform #ceo #locgov #socent #government #thirdsector

One reason to attend the 21st Annual sySTEMnow Conference is to connect and brainstorm with other STEM advocates to enable partnering in the future. Here is an example from a past conference. Learn more and register for the conference at https://lnkd.in/d4EfTZy

📣 Wondering how to prioritize questions that matter most for philanthropy, how to stay up-to-date on evolving evidence about social problems, or how to integrate the lived experiences of communities within grant making processes? So are we. 💡 In February, The GovLab and Paul Ramsay Foundation will be launching DATA4Philanthropy with Philanthropy Australia. DATA4Philanthropy is a new platform that aims to accelerate data-driven innovation across the grant making process. 📄 The platform will include primers on innovative data-driven methods and tools for philanthropy, and a networking group to share learnings and best practices. Methods include Digital Ethnography, Participatory Sourcing of Questions and more! ➡️ Sign up here to receive more information on the upcoming launch or join the network: https://lnkd.in/gKEirZjb

Check out the Birth Equity Action Map (https://lnkd.in/eTGv4-mT), a systems mapping tool we co-created with UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Vijaya Hogan, and 48 diverse national, state, and local birth equity partners. The map describes urgent actions needed by specific partners in the next 5 years and highlights where in the system funders can use their leverage to accelerate birth equity. We hope this tool drives momentum, collective action, and accountability for systems change. Please reach out if you have questions or would like support thinking through how to apply the map to your context!

We can’t have equity in access to all the opportunity #ai can bring without addressing the digital divide. Learn more about 3 impactful indivials who have spent decades committed to this vital work.

Some great lessons learned in these case studies in The Opportunity Project for Cities report brought to us by the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation

We believe capacity building is at the epicenter of organizational effectiveness. Yet historically in our sector, it hasn’t worked as well as it should. It’s expensive – each org has to figure it out for themselves – and typical “white paper” offerings often don’t take into account the practical complexities of how nonprofits will implement in the real world. Each year, in collaboration with our members, we create a series of cohort-based Capacity-Building Program Tracks designed to solve for these challenges. By looking across our 100+ member orgs, we work to understand what the most urgent capacity building priorities are in our community, and then design deeply responsive, high impact programming. This programming is: 1️⃣ Included in our membership fee with no additional cost to member orgs, enabling more leaders to do more of it. 2️⃣ Done in cohorts, so that peer learning and accountability are built in, enabling leaders to understand all the ways these same needs and challenges show up across our sector. 3️⃣ Explicitly designed not as a “white paper,” but a series of practitioner-led sessions resulting in a co-created blueprint that leaders can take back to their orgs, ready for implementation. This year, 70% of all member organizations are participating in our capacity building programming. To learn more about joining the Alliance, reach out to Sadiq A. Ali.

The inaugural International Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (EDI-AR) Conference – scheduled for Tuesday, May 14, 2024 in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador – seeks abstracts from potential conference presenters in the field of equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism work. The 2024 International EDI-AR Conference will bring together students, staff, researchers, faculty, community leaders and industry professional from around the world to share success stories and achievements. Participants and attendees will learn from each other about innovative and creative ways to design and implement EDI-AR programs and policies in post-secondary institutions, community groups, industry, associations and not-for-profit agencies. The theme for the conference is Creating and Maintaining EDI-AR Momentum Submit an abstract here: https://lnkd.in/dFeZQB8a

I hope you can tune in to learn more about this work and thinking on the edge of possibility in how we might reimagine education-to-career pathways and systems!

UMass Chan 2023 year in review. Watch this video recap to see how we are advancing together: https://direc.to/kmbM #AdvancingTogether2023