Achieving systems change is fundamentally about transforming relationships among people. Like systems change, Talent Hubs and CivicLab are driven by partnerships with communities, state, technical assistance providers, and other national organizations seeking to improve education and talent.
National Talent Network
Cross-sector partnerships at all levels are welcome to join the National Talent Network. Whether the partnership is newly forming or has been in operation for years, and no matter if the partnership is hyper focus on a single neighborhood or a multi-state region, the National Talent Network serves as a convener and supporter for those seeking to make change in the place they call home.
There are no fees to join the network. Partnerships sign a network agreement that describes what participation looks like and outlines the benefits of joining the network. Benefits include:
- Connecting with other leaders doing similar work around the country.
- Exclusive events and trainings focused on systems change, education, talent, and stakeholder collaboration.
- Access to CivicLab staff support and coaching.
- Discounted rates at convenings, design labs, and other CivicLab events.
- Guided facilitation towards earning a Talent Hub designation.
Technical Assistance Provider Network
Talent Hubs and members of the National Talent Network need support from experts and consultants to achieve success. We maintain an active network of these technical assistance providers that can be deployed to provide just-in-time, contextualized support to our partners. Technical assistance providers range from large firms and institutes to individual consultants and former executives. Together, they address the wide range of challenges that cross-sector partnerships face.
Consultants and organizations that join the Technical Assistance Provider Network receive:
- Referrals from CivicLab to connect partnerships and practitioners with providers.
- Inclusion in nationally funded initiatives.
- Partnership and collaboration opportunities with 100+ cross-sector partnerships across the United States.
Building Capacity for Change
CivicLab provides a variety of capacity-building supports to communities across the country. Whether working deeply with a single organization or community, running cohort programs, offering data and assessment services, or providing cohort programs, CivicLab is building the capacity of people and places for systems change.
CivicLab has partnered with over 300 rural, midsized, and urban communities and organizations across the U.S. and trained more than 20,000 leaders of foundations, educational institutions, government, corporations, and community development organizations. Over the past ten years, CivicLab has been sought out by employer-centric partnerships across the country to assist in the redesign of talent development systems. This collective learning informs our supportive, non-prescriptive, model agnostic approach to building community capacity to change learning systems at the systems-level.
Systemness Leadership Academy
We tend to think about things by breaking the world into pieces. But once we take a system apart, it loses its essential properties. It loses its systemness. We fragment the world instead of making it whole.
Systemness is a Systems Leadership Academy for co-creating wholistic social systems designed to serve whole people.
The Academy is teaches systems-building principles, shares concrete examples of the ideas in action, and provides a space to practice systems building tools and frameworks.
The experience is ideal for (1) people who want to be better system thinkers; (2) leaders who want to create an authentic unity among a diverse group of stakeholders; and (3) communities that want to use a coherent, wholistic approach to address complex social problems.
Building Rural Community Systems
CivicLab is partnering with ten rural community and regional cross-sector partnerships around the country in developing education to employment partnerships. Supported by Ascendium and ECMC Foundation, CivicLab will assist these rural collaboratives in developing and implementing plans to strengthen talent development ecosystems so that rural learners have paths to good jobs in their communities. In addition to direct financial support, partnerships will receive capacity-building support from CivicLab and specialized technical assistance from a network of experts.
Designate. Elevate. Support.
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