convening & collaborating

CCSD brings together people from all sectors and the public to engage and share perspectives.

By drawing on our reputation as an honest convener and network broker, as well as on our strategic design expertise, we create ‘safe spaces’ that permit and encourage – not sublimate – opposing views and differences, ensuring all sides are heard and better understood.

These collaborative and co-creative environments, be they peer-to-peer learning exchanges or one-off summits, workshops or web-enabled fora, are informed by both quantitative and qualitative data and research. They stimulate the needed dialogue that should and must happen before meaningful and sustainable – research to results – change can occur and be implemented.

National

Community Data Canada is a national data hub with partners from the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government, the private sector and not-for-profits, which is seen as the most comprehensive social, economic and neighbourhood level sharing of data in the country.

Community

Community Data Program has been a co-created, key enabler in strengthening community development through anchoring our ability to construct the “facts” in the narrative. Understanding and maximizing the use and interpretation of the data – and translating the data into meaningful stories that strengthen our collective understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing local communities – are central elements of this program.

Community X-Change is new on the landscape, with different partners taking the lead in different communities. These community tables welcome diversity and the participation of the necessary sectors and the public. They are focused on taking the facts and associated narratives to the next level through dialogue, deliberation, rethinking and reframing, and ultimately triaging priorities for action.

Canadian Social Forum is a dynamic event that brings together committed leaders from across the country. Participants share and promote innovation, build collective responses and scale up learnings across the country to collectively shape a progressive policy agenda.

Summits, Webinars, Workshops at the national, regional and community levels, bring our diverse partners together to learn from each other, profile innovation and build better outcomes.

On-going work within our family of not for profit social and human services partners to apply new approaches, evidence and thinking to challenges that through traditional approaches seem intractable

Work is now underway to bring together the various partner organizations that either produce, use, or both, data to build their narratives, with a view to working toward a non-proprietary community frame of indicators spanning the social, economic, environmental and cultural areas from a community perspective

Canadian Network of Design Collaboratories works with diverse communities nationally, learning together, sharing best practices, tools and methodologies, as well as collaborating on projects and research, understanding that social stresses and challenges are endemic to our society today.

International Collaboration of Labs works with a large community abroad, learning together, sharing observations, insights and practices, as well as collaborating on areas of mutual concern.