Prospectus

Working Draft -- September 2002

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INTRODUCTION

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION IS A GROWING FIELD – WITH CHALLENGES
Across North Carolina and the country, communities are bringing many players and voices together in processes that examine the roots of the community’s challenges and generate new ways to mobilize strengths and assets for community renewal. In most communities, one can find a wide array of community collaboratives from state government sponsored initiatives such as Smart Start, System of Care, Main Street, and Healthy Carolinians to federally-funded projects focused on housing and empowerment zones to nonprofit-initiated anti-racism and smart growth efforts. Urban planners, social workers, public administrators, city managers, elected officials, business leaders, and foundation funders are all trying to be more collaborative and inclusive.

Collaboration is a growing field because it works. As documented in recent report from the Community Building Institute of the National Civic League, “in less than twenty years, the use of collaboration has expanded from a small number of social experiments in the late 1970s and early 1980s to practically becoming the default method by which communities conceptualize and conduct their public business.” With the increasing movement of government responsibility from the federal to the state and local level as well as the growing loss of trust in large institutions and expert driven solutions, the focus on collaboration is expected to only grow.

Despite this growing focus, many communities – especially small and rural ones - still struggle to find their collaborative bearings and to untangle the intertwined nature of their social and economic deficiencies. In communities that actively use collaboration, there are new challenges that must be addressed:

• Community collaboratives function in relative isolation. In many communities, the participants in one effort are likely to be unaware of other efforts. Leaders may also find themselves involved in a multitude of collaborative efforts, traveling from meeting to meeting with the same players attempting to satisfy the duplicative expectations of multiple funding streams, often without addressing the true nature of the community’s challenges.
• Collaborative efforts with the best intentions still leave out the voices, aspirations and decisions of those who have been marginalized from more traditional institutions by the dynamics of race, class, and power.
• The infrastructure to support community collaboration is fragmented and underdeveloped. Policies and authority do not cross agency borders and few governance systems bridge the realms of government or the three sectors of government, business, and nonprofits
• Most communities lack skilled and experienced practitioners who can coach and facilitate the participants through an inclusive and generative process. The state’s practitioners are focused within a specific issue initiative, booked well into the future, work only in a small region of the state, or charge fees beyond the available resources. Outside practitioners could be doing a better job of building the capacity of local leaders so that they can lead the further collaborative efforts that are stimulated from early efforts.
• The funding and other resources for collaboration are organized within issue-based silos that can result from many of the policies and practices of funding agencies. Without collaborative-to-collaborative relationships, it is hard to work on problems larger than the direct spheres of influence.
• It is difficult to replicate success within communities and between communities as the lessons learned and practices developed are not shared across collaboratives, issue areas, or communities.

THE SOLUTIONS NETWORK WILL ACCELERATE COMMUNITY PROBLEM-SOLVING
In late 1999, a wide and diverse group of community leaders, practitioners, and thinkers came together to explore ways to address some of the challenges of collaboration and to foster more comprehensive efforts that holistically address a community’s aspirations for community renewal. The North Carolina Community Solutions Network is the result of this effort.
The purpose of the North Carolina Community Solutions Network is to build the capacity of communities – particularly those that are economically distressed - to inclusively and collaboratively address complex community problems and improve the quality of life for all its citizens. The Solutions Network believes that the best short and long-term solutions for economic and social well being result when communities listen to voices from all sectors; work intentionally to bridge historic divides across race, power, geography, and other historic divisions; and foster a civic culture of inclusion, engagement, and democracy in decision-making.

Within this broad purpose of advancing collaborative community problem-solving, the Network has four goals:

1. Connect communities to the information, coaching, and other resources already available in the state to support community-change efforts;
2. Strengthen the numbers and capacity of practitioners across North Carolina who are able to assist communities through educational programs and improved access to knowledge, resources and public and private financial support;
3. Shape public agency policies and practices to support collaborative community problem-solving and reduce fragmentation of efforts; and,
4. Build the practice of community problem solving by sharing what has been learned in communities and developing new tools and practices.

THE NETWORK ENABLES CONNECTION AND CO-CREATION
To achieve the ambitious purpose and goals of the Solutions Network, the launch team recognized that the form of this new entity must model collaboration and inclusive decision-making. It must also leverage and build existing knowledge and capacity by connecting – not duplicating - existing efforts. Finally, the Network must be flexible and adaptable to respond to the complexity and fluidness of the problems and issues in North Carolina’s rural and urban communities.

The launch team chose to forego traditional organizational forms, instead choosing to build an enabling network that harnesses the talent and resources of interested individuals, organizations, and institutions to focus on the purpose and principles defined by the team and further refined by a growing body of network participants. In his acclaimed new book Linked: The New Science of Networks, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi documents the diversity and strength of networks from policy networks and ownership networks to collaboration networks and organizational networks. Cisco, Compaq, IBM, and Red Hat all use networks as a core business strategy. VISA is designed as a network of banks and other financial institutions that share the credit card product. The Society for Organizational Learning initiated by Peter Senge of MIT is organized as an enabling network as is La Leche League International. These and other initiatives find that a network allows a wide variety of partners to work together to add value to their individual and shared goals.

YOU ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE
The North Carolina Community Solutions Network will only be as strong as the commitment of its partners to connect and create with each other. This prospectus is designed to spark a conversation with potential partners about investing time, energy, talent, and financial resources in creating a shared vehicle that accelerates community problem-solving and advances community renewal across the state. We are seeking partners who are already engaged in some aspect of community problem-solving and want to link with others to leverage and grow their efforts. Each partner is invited to sign on to the purpose and principles of the Solutions Network and define their own terms of participation in concert with the purpose and principles and in relationship with other partners in the Network.

ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS
This prospectus is divided into six sections: each one a draft of the visions and plans of the current participants in the Network. As new partners join, the actual workings of the Network will change while still maintaining a strong commitment to the purpose and principles that serve as the Network’s foundation.
1. Opportunity – an exploration into the challenges of North Carolina’s communities and the framework of community problem-solving.
2. Organizational Model – the purpose, goals, and principles of the Network and further explanation of the benefits and costs of an enabling network.
3. Strategies and Targets – details on the initial four strategies of brokering relationships, developing and expanding a network of practitioners, building an information and referral system, and documenting the impact and value of community problem-solving.
4. Management – the principles and proposed structure for governing and managing the network.
5. Action Plan – the start-up tasks through January 2003.
6. Financial Projections – a description of the proposed revenue model with detailed projections of revenues and expenses through 2005.

OPPORTUNITY
NORTH CAROLINA’S COMMUNITIES FACE TOUGH CHALLENGES
SEVEN ELEMENTS ACCELERATE COMMUNITY PROBLEM-SOLVING
NORTH CAROLINA’S COMMUNITIES ARE NOT PREPARED
THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LINK AND GROW EXISTING EFFORTS AND RESOURCES

ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL
PURPOSE OF THE NETWORK
GOALS OF THE NETWORK
PRINCIPLES OF THE PRACTICE
A NETWORK THAT LINKS COMMUNITIES WITH RESOURCES
NETWORK PARTICIPANTS

STRATEGIES AND TARGETS
BROKER RELATIONSHIPS
DEVELOP AND EXPAND A NETWORK OF PRACTITIONERS
BUILD AN INFORMATION AND REFERRAL SYSTEM
DOCUMENT THE IMPACT AND VALUE OF COMMUNITY PROBLEM-SOLVING

MANAGEMENT
PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATION
THE GOVERNING COUNCIL
CLUSTERS
CORE STAFF

ACTION PLAN
START UP FUNDING
START UP TEAM AND TASKS
MANAGEMENT TEAM

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS
PROJECTIONS THROUGH 2005
REVENUE SOURCES
EXPENSE PROJECTIONS

APPENDICES:
Network Cluster Responsibilities
Network Coordinator Responsibilities

OPPORTUNITY
NORTH CAROLINA’S COMMUNITIES FACE TOUGH CHALLENGES
North Carolina’s communities face a range of systemic and deep-seated challenges that demand urgent attention and defy easy solution. Critical issues include loss of traditional jobs, an aging and under-skilled workforce, tensions around land use, fundamental demographic shifts, and low levels of academic achievement. The future prosperity of our state’s communities and the lives of every citizen in the state rest on our ability to address the complex questions before us:
1. School Reform: How do we create schools that educate all students well and are surrounded by communities with a sustained civic will to demand excellence and accountability for all children?
2. Workforce Preparedness: How do we guarantee that all of North Carolina’s workers are prepared to adapt to the accelerating pace of economic change?
3. Early Childhood Development: How do we ensure that there are systems and programs in place so that all North Carolina children receive the care and support they need to grow and thrive?
4. Economic Development: How do we maintain and build on North Carolina’s impressive record of economic development so that we create further opportunity and reduce existing inequity across race, gender, and geography?
5. Sustainable Development: How do we strike a balance between reasonable growth and prudent stewardship of the state’s remarkable natural and environmental assets?
6. Diverse Demographics: How do we reconcile the conflicting needs of different generations, ethnic groups, and geographic regions as the state’s population becomes more diverse, more numerous, and more concentrated in the metropolitan areas?

These and other serious challenges confronting North Carolina communities share two important characteristics. First, no public consensus exists at the local, regional, or state level on the best course of action to resolve these issues. Conventional wisdom is proving inadequate and fresh approaches have not solidified into a new consensus. In economic development, for example, no proven strategies exist to reliably address the growing inequities between richer urban counties and poorer rural ones. In school reform, despite progress at the level of individual schools, no proven methods exist to produce high achievement across whole school districts.
Second, prevailing methods of problem-solving work poorly on multi-dimensional issues with multiple and conflicting constituencies. Our current forms of government are organized to make decisions at the municipal, state, and federal levels yet our most significant problems are at the neighborhood, regional, and global levels. We need strategy, mobilization, and management of a stream of ongoing decisions but there are typically no established forums or procedures around which citizens can meet and deliberate. Back to Table of Contents

SEVEN ELEMENTS ACCELERATE COMMUNITY PROBLEM-SOLVING

Tough issues typically require collaborative action from government, business, nonprofits, and citizens at-large, yet collaborative problem-solving methods can be messy, complex, and time-consuming, testing civic patience and goodwill. David Crislip, a noted expert on civic life, notes that successful civic problem-solving depends as much on the mastery of effective process as it does on the mastery of issue content. In each regional meeting held by former Governor Hunt’s Rural Prosperity Task Force, rural citizens spoke of the importance of building the capacity of their community and its leadership to do collaborative problem-solving and project implementation well. Our own background research reveals that most North Carolina communities lack the resident capacity to organize and execute the tasks of civic problem-solving efficiently and in ways that enhance democratic participation and ensure fair and equitable resolution for citizens traditionally left behind.

Collaborative community-problem solving is an integrated set of group process, planning, and technical support brought to bear in an organized way in a community to result in significant short and ultimately long-term change. At the core of this definition are two fundamental beliefs:

• The best short and long-term solutions result when voices from all sectors of the community are heard; and,
• Communities that work intentionally to bridge historic divides and to create a civic culture of inclusion, engagement, and democracy in decision-making are those most likely to succeed economically over the long-term.

In 1998, MDC asked the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation for a planning grant to examine the question of whether and how North Carolina might deepen and accelerate large-scale community-change efforts. MDC’s interest in this subject grows out of over a decade of work in the South and nationally, focused on building community will and skill to address complex problems collectively. MDC and John Ott of Partners in Innovation interviewed over 30 people from a variety of institutions and communities in the state, asking them to reflect on current "community problem-solving" efforts in the state. The insights from the interviews, the literature from the field, and their own experience suggested a set of mutually reinforcing conditions required for communities to succeed in making substantial progress in creating smart and equitable solutions to some of their most intractable problems.

The Seven Elements of Collaborative Community Problem-Solving
This background research surfaced seven elements that must be present in a community for democratic community problem-solving to occur:

1. Community Will: Sometimes communities fail to solve some of their most intractable problems because, put simply, they don’t want change. That is, a sufficient number of leaders of key constituencies are not committed to seeing that the community becomes more just, fair, or democratic.
2. A Critical Mass of Trusting Relationships: Another reason that communities fail to solve complex problems in a way that is driven by equity and democracy is that they lack a sufficiently powerful web of trusting relationships among leaders of key constituencies in the community. Barriers of race, culture, class, gender, power, and personal history all make trusting relationships far more difficult to create, all make it harder for leaders to cross the divides in their community to create the collaborative partnerships necessary to tackle the multidimensional issues now challenging them.
3. A Vision of Shared Responsibility and Action: Closely related to community will and a web of trusting relationships is an understanding among leaders and citizens that people throughout the community are mutually responsible for and capable of action. Many of the problems currently confronting communities cannot be solved unless the entire community is engaged. Too often change efforts emerge from one segment of or sector in the community without any effort to bring other groups to the table from the outset.
4. Effective Decision-making and Organizational Structures: Successful community problem solving efforts need structures for governance, planning, community engagement, and accountability that build and promote trust, inclusion, and constructive engagement. Meaningful inclusion of low-income citizens is a particular challenge, even for the most well-intentioned efforts.
5. Collaborative Decision-Making and Problem-Solving Skills: To create such structures and, more importantly, to make them work will require leaders and citizens in communities to develop a range of new skills, including process skills, interpersonal skills, analytic and planning skills, management and technical skills, and leadership skills.
6. Capacity to Access and Generate Technical Knowledge: Beyond skills and structures, leaders and citizens who engage in community innovation and problem-solving efforts must develop working knowledge of trends, best practices, emerging thinking, and policy contexts in the areas they are seeking to influence. Many of the problems most pressing on North Carolina communities are particularly vexing because there is no settled analysis of what should or can be done. This means that communities have to have both working familiarity with existing best practices and a capacity to create and apply fresh ideas about tough issues.
7. Access to Skilled Help: No one community will have access to all of the capacities it needs to undertake an ambitious community-change agenda. Community leaders will need access to different kinds of help at different times as they develop their problem-solving capacities. Interviewees cited a shortage of skilled technical assistance providers as an impediment to the growth of creative and resourceful community-change efforts in North Carolina. A second and more complicated challenge is that there is not an agreed upon comprehensive framework for how to develop sustained, democratically driven community-change efforts. Back to Table of Contents

NORTH CAROLINA’S COMMUNITIES ARE NOT PREPARED
The research that led to the seven-point model also documented that many North Carolina communities are not prepared to launch a major community problem-solving effort. In some communities, the conditions are not yet ripe and in those communities where the conditions are ripe, the community does not have access to the skills, knowledge, and capacities that it needs to generate change.

Our interviews also documented that while North Carolina has a number of individual and organizational practitioners in the areas of organizational development, planning, and community economic development compared to other Southern states, it lacks an organized network of people who are equipped to provide the full range of community capacity-building assistance that communities require. Furthermore, individuals within organizations do not typically cross organizational lines to share their skills and methods for work in community problem solving. For example, Cooperative Extension’s learnings from its work in community and leadership development have not been shared widely with others outside of the land grant institutions. MDC has not systematically shared many of its learnings from work in the Mississippi Delta, Arkansas, or Appalachia with North Carolina colleagues. People from disciplines outside of youth and family work have not gleaned the lessons from the early Smart Start county collaborative work. And when any of us learn state-of-the-art practice from people outside of North Carolina, those lessons are not shared across a network. Finally, not only do statewide practitioners not learn from one another, local leaders in communities who can help shepherd local community problem-solving efforts are also not connected to a network of practitioners. Back to Table of Contents

THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LINK AND GROW EXISTING EFFORTS AND RESOURCES
In 1999, MDC convened a team of practitioners and stakeholders to determine both the form and function of an entity that would build the state’s capacity for collaborative community problem-solving. Since then, the number of collaborative efforts both within local communities and within specific issues has begun to blossom. State government is sponsoring several collaboratives such as the System of Care and Healthy Carolinians. Nonprofit organizations have formed issue-based collaboratives such as the NC Smart Growth Alliance and NC ConNet. The Institute of Government has a project to look at the ways that government and nonprofits might better work together. The Ford Foundation funded work to develop a coalition of policy and organizing nonprofits focused on economic justice as the new NC Alliance for Economic Justice. When it finalized its report, the North Carolina Rural Prosperity Task Force (RPTF) chaired by Erskine Bowles recommended the creation of a Sustainable Communities Initiative to foster collaboration on behalf of rural communities. Back to Table of Contents

Organizational Model
Since early 2000, a diverse team of community leaders and community problem-solving practitioners has contributed energy, commitment, and talent in designing a unique entity to serve as an accessible system for communities to leverage the resources they need to practice collaborative community problem-solving. The North Carolina Community Solutions Network is designed to be a multi-dimensional collaborative that links efforts now functioning in single-issue silos. It will also build a system that extends beyond one-time projects. The North Carolina Community Solutions Network is the only entity in the state to promote and model learning about community problem-solving across issue areas.

PURPOSE OF THE NETWORK
The North Carolina Community Solutions Network builds the capacity of communities – particularly those that are economically distressed - to inclusively and collaboratively address complex community problems and improve the quality of life for all its citizens.
The Solutions Network believes that the best short and long-term solutions for economic and social well being result when communities:

• Listen to voices from all sectors;
• Work intentionally to bridge historic divides across race, power, geography, and other historic divisions; and,
• Foster a civic culture of inclusion, engagement, and democracy in decision-making.
  Back to Table of Contents

GOALS OF THE NETWORK
Within this broad purpose of advancing collaborative community problem-solving, the Network has four goals:

1. Connect communities to the information, coaching, and other resources already available in the state to support community-change efforts;
2. Strengthen the numbers and capacity of practitioners across North Carolina who are able to assist communities through educational programs and improved access to knowledge, resources and public and private financial support;
3. Shape public agency policies and practices to support collaborative community problem-solving and reduce fragmentation of efforts; and,
4. Build the practice of community problem solving by sharing what has been learned in communities and developing new tools and practices. Back to Table of Contents

PRINCIPLES OF THE PRACTICE
The NC Community Solutions Network has established a comprehensive set of principles that guides its practice of community problem-solving. These principles influence the actions and intentions of communities and outside practitioners who work alongside community leaders. The Network’s principles also are intended to guide the processes used by community leaders and outside practitioners in planning and implementing change.

Communities can best solve complex problems and create futures of equity and justice when they:

• are inclusive and meaningfully involve all stakeholders in the privileged work of community building.
• build relationships of trust and respect across lines of race, class, power differences.
• seek to build on all of their assets—physical, organizational, cultural or historic, human (particularly across a continuum of ages).
• embrace a paradox: that the most crucial knowledge, wisdom, and perspective reside within the communities themselves, and that often a helpful catalyst for unleashing such latent potential comes from people outside of the community.

Processes designed to assist communities solve complex problems and create futures of equity and justice are most effective when they:

• combine reflection and action, so that concrete changes in the community begin to occur even during the process of planning and so that concrete action occurs as a result of any deliberative “problem-solving” process.
• take into account the cultural and historic context of the community, drawing on both the strengths and the barriers created by that culture and history.
• integrate leadership development into all phases of the work in the community.\
• provide enough time—often years—for true change.

People or organizations who live outside of a community, and who wish to help that community solve complex problems and create futures of equity and justice, can best do so when they:

• participate in the work of the community with an explicit commitment to expand the community’s capacities to solve its own problems and create its own future.
• engage with the community in a spirit of partnership and learning for all parties.
• ensure that some kind of institutional base of support remains for the work of ongoing collaborative change to continue.
• do all possible to build community capacity and systems for ongoing learning and recognize that some relationship between the community and an outside provider in the future may be useful, given the ongoing dynamic of community change.
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A NETWORK THAT LINKS COMMUNITIES WITH RESOURCES
To be effective the NC Community Solutions Network must actively develop several key areas of organizational practice:

• Model collaboration and the kinds of inclusive decision-making structures that we propose for communities. Collaboration requires that partnerships, information, and support occur in the spaces between legal entities and across traditional boundaries.
• Be flexible and adaptable in responding effectively to the complexity and fluidness of the problems and issues in North Carolina’s rural and urban communities.
• Develop products and services that deliver value in communities without putting the community in the place of being a client.
• Pull together existing knowledge and capacity and minimize duplication of services and effort.

Most traditional forms of organization are better designed for a more command and control environment and have difficulty meeting these conditions. In our research, we found a growing number of similar organizations were developing as enabling networks, binding themselves together with a clear purpose and a set of principles that guide the actions and decisions of the participants. Some other characteristics of an enabling network include:

Disperses activities. Those who have the greatest expertise and/or willingness within the Network carry out the relevant work.

Allows for self-organizing and self-governing activities. If participants in the Network see the need for a new activity, they are responsible for making it happen (including finding the resources).

Inspires participation. Participants sign-on to participate in a network with a clear purpose and principles. They know what they are getting into and why they are there.

Is a system that links its functions together with strong relationships and communication tools for cooperation, knowledge building, and information sharing. Technology has enabled parts of a networked system to maintain close communication as well as regular gatherings of the network and a staff that actively links the network’s participants.

Balances competition and cooperation. A network is not a coalition: every participant does not have to agree with every action (just the core purpose and principles). There do need to be structures and principles for creatively and cooperatively resolving conflict.

Though it fits well with the Network’s purpose and values, there are risks entailed in an enabling network. An emerging network requires time and energy from the participants to hold the intention of the organization’s purpose and principles and to create the tools and processes needed to achieve the outcomes. This investment of energy must be rewarded with demonstrated value to the participants or people will choose not to participate, spending their time and energy on other priorities with clearer value. This value trade-off is especially important in organizations with insufficient resources and capacity. In the early years, there is great potential for frustration and discomfort as people release their preconceived notions about the nature and structure of organizations and create something that will fit the purpose and principles rather than what fits what they already know. Finally, an enabling network requires a high degree of trust and participation from all parties, challenging and often difficult when working across race, class, and other power dynamics. Back to Table of Contents

NETWORK PARTICIPANTS
As a network, the NC Community Solutions Network will engage a wide variety of stakeholders who play a role in building strong communities. Communities and their leaders are at the core of the network and are supported by such stakeholders as coaches, facilitators, and other technical assistance providers who can serve as content experts and process facilitators. Foundations and government funding agencies play the role of investors in community initiatives and policymakers shape both the availability of funding as well as policies that influence the environment of North Carolina’s communities. The Solutions Network will also invite researchers, evaluators, and documenters as participants in reflecting on and building the practice of community problem-solving.

Core Participants:
Communities and their leaders – those engaged in local change and development projects, this constituency includes grassroots individuals, local elected officials, leaders of government agencies and nonprofits.

Supporting Participants:
Community coaches – practitioners who possess the diagnostic, facilitation, and capacity-building skills to guide communities through effective processes of development. This category of participants also includes those who support coaches with training, mentoring, and credentialing services. Organizational examples include MDC Inc., NC Cooperative Extension, Renssellaerville Institute, the Conservation Fund, the Mediation Network of NC, and Handmade in America.

Technical assistance providers – practitioners who are specialized by skill or issue. Technical assistance providers are often found in state-wide public and non-profit agencies where they are funded and supported in specific program arenas. Examples include the NC Division of Community Assistance, System of Care, United Way of NC, NC Partnership for Children, and the NC Center for Nonprofits.

Investors – those able to provide funds to support community problem-solving, both the direct costs and the costs of the supports required for the work. Examples include the NC Rural Center, Progress Energy, the Cumberland Community Foundation, and the Warner Foundation.
Policymakers – those who can change laws, administrative regulations, and practices to actively support comprehensive, inclusive, and democratic community problem-solving.

Related Participants:
Researchers, evaluators, documenters – those who have expertise and interest in working to identify, analyze, document, and disseminate lessons learned for successful community development. This category of participants includes more traditional media sources as well.
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STRATEGIES AND TARGETS
The NC Community Solutions Network’s projected mix of strategies is based on conversations with community leaders, practitioners, policy makers and potential investors. The strategies are tied to the goals of the Network and include the following:

• Broker relationships between funding partners, communities, and coaches/practitioners to offer North Carolina communities processes of support and innovation designed to dramatically improve their community-building efforts;
• Develop and expand a network of North Carolina practitioners who share a common understanding of and approach to community-change work and who are interested in developing a much stronger set of skills through sustained collective learning and practice;
• Build an information and referral system that North Carolina communities can easily access to receive information about existing resources and expertise to support their community-building and change efforts; and,
• Document the impact and value of community problem-solving and share the real-life stories from North Carolina’s communities.
  
  The market analysis and more descriptive information on each of these strategies is documented below. The chart on page 15 highlights the Network’s goals, strategies, and targets and demonstrates how the proposed strategies and products will fit multiple goals.
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BROKER RELATIONSHIPS

Rather than persuading funders to invest in community problem-solving and then seeking out communities that want to participate in the effort, the Solutions Network will serve as a broker between funders and communities. The Network will develop a package of coaching and technical assistance that will be marketed to both communities as well as government agencies and foundations that are promoting local community collaboratives.

This model merges the needs of both communities and funders and moves the Network into a stronger position for long-term sustainability. The Network will receive a percentage of each funding commitment as payment for its brokering services as well as payment for any additional value-add from the Network. There is growing stream of funding for collaborative work from both foundations and government agencies though often the desired results are within one area of concern such as juvenile justice and smart growth.

The brokering model responds to the fact that most communities, especially rural ones, do not have the resources to pay for the services of coaches and other practitioners. Also, they may not have sufficient relationships or credibility to secure funding on their own.

From the funders’ perspective, the brokering model allows a foundation or other investors to give directly to a community effort rather than an intermediary organization. Since some funders, especially government agencies, are tied to specific issue areas, the brokering model allows these funders to participate in the components that fit their particular niche and reap the synergies from combined effort.

For the Solutions Network to successfully serve as a credible broker, it must develop several core competencies and capacities:

• An extensive map of committed practitioners including coaches, facilitators, and other technical assistance providers that the Solutions Network can contract with to provide specific skills for specific projects and in specific communities.
• A network of relationships with potential funding partners and the capacity to negotiate contracts.
• Knowledge of North Carolina’s diverse communities and the ability to advocate for those that are often overlooked.
• The ability to assess when communities and funders are ready to engage in true collaborative community problem-solving (see the principles of the practice).
• Tools and processes to evaluate and correct any quality problems with coaches and technical assistance providers.
• The ability to build and maintain trust between the funder and the community in what can be a “messy” and lengthy process.
• Trust and cooperation with issue-based organizations and other intermediaries working in the chosen communities

The Solutions Network is developing a growing number of partnerships with communities and agencies across the state. In 2001, the Golden LEAF Foundation gave the Network $150,000 to work with three tobacco dependent communities: Duplin County, Rowland in Robeson County, and Hot Springs in Madison County. Through three organizations with a history of providing assistance to communities, the Solutions Network is applying the principles and practices of community problem-solving and will make the results available to communities across the state. Back to Table of Contents

DEVELOP AND EXPAND A NETWORK OF PRACTITIONERS
Effective assistance in community problem-solving efforts requires individuals who posses a unique set of skills, knowledge, perspective, and experience:

• diagnostic skills that allow them to work with a set of people representing multiple organizations or constituencies and determine the organizational and political challenges and opportunities faced by the group;
• facilitation skills that allow them to actively moderate difficult meetings; negotiate conflict; pay attention to dynamics of race, power, and personality; ensure inclusion;
• technical content knowledge that gives them the ability to help people wrestle constructively with complex subjects and that allows them to be able brokers of expert knowledge on the problems in question;
• knowledge of structural possibilities (e.g., new task force, new organization, collaboration of several organizations) for the change process: the ability to help a group conceive how to “institutionalize” a change process to ensure longevity to the democratic process that has begun; and,
• capacity-building skills to identify, draw out, and build on the inherent talents in a group and to build the group's own skills for organizational maintenance and troubleshooting.

As noted earlier in this prospectus, North Carolina has many community-change practitioners across the state who typically work within the context of their own organization and do not cross issue and organizational lines to learn from and combine forces with others in the field. Some people in the field also doubt that there are enough skilled practitioners to meet the demand if more communities engage in comprehensive initiatives.

The Solutions Network will invest in developing and expanding a network of North Carolina practitioners including both community coaches and local leaders. The Practitioners Learning Network (PLN) will have two purposes: (1) to develop and expand the network of practitioners in the state who share a common understanding of and approach to community-change work; and, (2) to develop and deepen the skills of people in this network so that their work is more effective.

Participants in this process will share with each other the approaches they currently use when working with communities, explore promising practices from around the country, and develop a frank assessment of which of their own practices are currently working well and where and how current efforts need to improve. Local community members who want to enhance their community building skills will also be invited to participate in the Practitioners Learning Network. The PLN will host formal learning activities at least twice a year and will encourage practitioners to schedule and host gatherings in their own local region.

Over sixty practitioners have already invested their own time in laying the groundwork for the PLN. In August 2001 and February 2002, practitioners met to identify the primary services of the Network, benefits to participants, and topics for learning/skill development.

PLN Services

• Increase the exposure of community problem-solving practices through occasional conferences and training.
• Provide regular topical training and information sharing for professional development of the PLN participants.
• Build a common practice with shared principles and practices, reflection on what works, and reciprocal learning activities.
• Broker requests for services between communities, funders, and practitioners.
• Develop a cadre of qualified coaches that the Network will broker to communities.

Benefits to Participants

• Mailing list and information access
• Training programs
• Updates on community renewal projects
• Regular meetings and informal sharing
• Peer reviews of projects to enhance performance
• Seeking and using mentors

Benefits to the Practice of Community Problem-Solving
In addition to developing a cadre of skilled and experienced practitioners who can work with communities, a significant byproduct of the PLN is the building of the capacity of whole organizations and agencies within the state. For example, 2-3 people from Cooperative Extension may join the Practitioner Learning Network. These people, and others serving on the team, can bring back the learnings from the PLN to their colleagues in their agency. In addition, practitioners who are working in a community will in all likelihood be working in partnership with people from other institutions and disciplines. Both the sharing of learning and the development of new relationships will allow government and nonprofit agencies to revise and reinvent their practice. This has enormous potential for ridding the state of the usual “silo” behavior of agencies and fostering a true statewide learning community focused on the complex field of collaborative community problem-solving. Back to Table of Contents

BUILD AN INFORMATION AND REFERRAL SYSTEM
Beyond connecting practitioners directly with communities through brokering relationships, the Solutions Network will develop the capacity to respond to the support needs of a larger number of North Carolina communities. Others who have analyzed the disparities in urban and rural communities, including the Rural Prosperity Task Force, have recommended the creation of a one-stop center that would provide quick help to communities on matters related to community building.

The Solutions Network will begin the development of this information system by creating a database of people and organizations that can help communities on a wide variety of topics essential to community problem-solving. The Solutions Network will also create a website with links to other relevant resources on the web that will be launched in the start-up phase of the network and then developed further. Within two years, the Solutions Network will make the database, its own community building tools, and links to other resources accessible to anyone with Internet access. Those without Internet access will be able to call the Solutions Network for assistance. The Network will require technology capacity including a server to host the website and database. Back to Table of Contents

DOCUMENT THE IMPACT AND VALUE OF COMMUNITY PROBLEM-SOLVING
As Malcolm Gladwell documents in The Tipping Point, the acceptance of new ideas and social trends is predicated on a feedback loop that produces information that is used to further refine the idea to better fit within its social context. The Solutions Network will consciously develop feedback loops to evaluate and improve community problem-solving practices and to aggressively disseminate information on the value and practices of community problem-solving. As the first step, the Solutions Network will use its experiences in the three Golden LEAF communities to create case studies. Lessons and promising practices from the Practitioners Learning Network will also be carefully documented to demonstrate the value of community problem-solving.

These case studies, lessons, and practices will be shared through the networks of the Network participants including links from their websites to the case studies; articles in newsletters and journals such as Community News, NC Insight, Regional Focus, Rural America, Millennium, National Civic Review, and Popular Government; and presentations at relevant conferences such as those sponsored by the Institute of Government, the NC League of Municipalities, and the NC Association of County Commissioners. Click here for chart. Back to Table of Contents

MANAGEMENT
So that it does not collapse into a new nonprofit with a “go it alone attitude”, the Solutions Network will deliberately structure and manage itself as an enabling network that can catalyze innovation through participation, involvement, and influence from all of its partners. Becoming a network will require focused attention and a willingness to try new ways of working together.

PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATION
As the first step in forming itself as a network, the Solutions Network has developed a set of principles of organization. These principles inform the ways that the participants in the Network relate to each other and accomplish the work of the Network and are designed to be used in conjunction with the purpose and principles of practice outlined in an earlier section of this business plan. These principles of organization are:

1. Model the concepts and practices of community problem-solving in every deliberation and action.
2. Be open to any individual or institution that embraces the purpose and principles of the NC Community Solutions Network and manifests this purpose and principles within their own activities.
3. Foster self-organizing to enable participants to initiate and conduct activity, at any time, at any scale, in any area, and around any priority that is relevant to and consistent with the purpose and principles.
4. Conduct deliberations and make decisions by bodies and methods that reasonably represent all relevant and affected parties and are dominated by none.
5. Make decisions and perform functions at the most local level possible.
6. Freely share information, knowledge, and materials that advance the practice of community problem-solving.
7. Practice the highest levels of collaboration, mutual support, and transparency.
8. Focus actions and deliberations first on enhancing the communities of North Carolina, then the Network as a whole, and finally the participants of the Network.

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THE GOVERNING COUNCIL
Governance is the act of setting polices, committing to joint action, and resolving issues with the decisions binding on all of the participants of the system being governed. Within the Network, there may be multiple centers of governance, one for the whole of the network and others for parts of the network. For example, the Practitioners Learning Network may choose to form its own governing council. Other teams that form to complete tasks or divide labor may also have a smaller group within the team that serves as the primary coordinators and decision-makers for the team.

The Governing Council holds the organization in trust for all participants in the Network as well as for the public bodies that have granted the organization its 501c(3) nonprofit status. Members of the Governing Council hold the vision and values of the Network and serve as models of leadership and service. The Governing Council is not a management team for the Network and does not direct the activities of the Network. Instead the Council serves as a representative body to address issues of concern to the whole of the Network. Responsibilities include the following:

• Formalize the expectations between participants and the network.
• Reflect on and revise governing policies and practices as the network develops.
• Deliberate on key strategic issues related to the whole of the network.
• Provide fiduciary stewardship.
• Establish any fees-for-service (i.e. brokering fees, product development fees, participant fees) or approve fees-for-service proposed by other parts of the network.
• Hire and supervise the Network Coordinator.
• Support the efforts of the Network Coordinator to seek cash and in-kind contributions to support the operations of the network

The Governing Council has no less than three and no more than twenty-five members, all of whom are active participants in the Network with the full body representing the diversity of the full Network. Members of the Governing Council can serve no more than three consecutive two-year teams with members of the Governing Council selected by the Governing Council from nominations generated by Network participants. Back to Table of Contents

CLUSTERS
The work of the Network is performed in clusters focused on areas of responsibility and defined deliverables. The original clusters are focused on the activities related to the targets and include the Practitioners Learning Network, the Partnership Brokering Cluster, the Evaluation Cluster, and the Awareness/Website Cluster. In future years, Clusters may be formed and disbanded based on the initiative of participants. Participants with an interest that fits within the purpose and principles of the Network may organize other participants into a Cluster. A Cluster may also choose to disband after completion of their responsibilities. More detail on the responsibilities and deliverables of these initial clusters can be found in Appendix 1. Back to Table of Contents

CORE STAFF
The core staff of an enabling network are connectors not doers. They are responsible for helping participants to do things for themselves and to join with one another to pursue common purposes. Core staff facilitate the growth of the whole network by helping participants develop their capacities for leadership and innovation. The core staff can also play a role in facilitating the participant’s understanding of the purpose and principles of the Network as well as the nature and potential of a self-organizing and enabling network. Staff focus on linking constituents and partners within the network, brokering relationships, and serving as a catalyst to encourage communication throughout the Network.

In addition to these coordinating functions, the core staff are responsible for functions that are common to the whole network such as managing common properties and infrastructure such as the website, database, and other technology that facilitates communication and collaboration. Parts of the network may choose to hire their own staff or contractors to perform either a coordinating function or for the creation of specialized tools and materials.

In the first three years of operations, the Network will have a very small core staff: a Network Coordinator and a part-time administrative support person. Other functions of the network and its subparts will be contracted to participants in the network who have the capacity and willingness to fill the role. Already identified roles include coordinating the Practioners Learning Network, mapping the state’s coaches and TA providers and building a database, and creating the website for the Network. The core staff and contract staff will function as a team with clear communication and coordination.

The staff of the Network is small because the ideas, talent, and resources of the Network rest with the participants and their links with each other. The small core staff enables the function of the Network and serves as the catalyst for information sharing and linking. Using the network for time and talent minimize the expense of building a core staff with all of the necessary skills and experiences to meet the organizational and project needs into the future.
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ACTION PLAN
START UP FUNDING
The North Carolina Community Solutions Network has already secured start-up funding from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation ($145,000) and the Rural Economic Development Center ($35,000). The Progress Energy Service Company funded the creation of this prospectus ($9,500). A grant of $150,000 from the Golden LEAF Foundation has equipped the Network to demonstrate the power of collaborative community problem-solving in three tobacco-dependent communities.

Additional investments of $280,000 over the Network’s first three years will be sought from foundations and corporations to cover the difference between projected expenses and anticipated earned revenues from participation fees as well as a percentage of all relationships brokered and serviced between funding partners and communities. With start-up investments from foundations and corporations, the staff and partners in the Network will be able to focus on the core elements of long-term viability:

• Brokering high quality and effective services that make an impact in communities.
• Increasing the visibility of community problem-solving and the Network.
• Building a solid infrastructure for the Network. Back to Table of Contents

START UP TEAM AND TASKS
In its first six months, the Network will be staffed by a team of five people who have participated in the early development of the Network (Sandy Brenneman, Scott Bradley, Donna Chavis, Danyelle O’Hara, and Julie Thomasson). This team has carved out four major products to deliver by December 2002:

1. Broker two to three projects with Network partners that fit the goals of the Solutions Network and demonstrate the value of Network partners joining forces. Ideas include creating tools to assess community readiness, creating a framework for evaluation, documenting stories of successful community problem-solving endeavors and presenting them at conferences, and brokering specific community projects. Tasks include developing proposals and memoranda of understanding as well as identifying funding sources.
2. Launch the Practioners Learning Network with a new name, a leadership group, and participation agreements between the network and practitioners. Other deliverables include mapping practitioners and their skills, creating a protocol for use in brokering relationships, and planning learning activities for 2003.
3. Develop a plan and related tools to market the Network to potential partners and other constituents. Tools include a web site, logo, brochure, as well as stationary and business cards.
4. Put the organizational and administrative structures and systems in place including recruiting and convening the Governing Council, writing bylaws and policies to fit the proposed network form and structure, putting a financial management system in place, and creating a staffing strategy for 2003 and beyond.

At the end of the start-up phase in January 2003, the Governing Council will be responsible for adopting job descriptions and hiring a Network Coordinator and other staff. In some cases, staff responsibilities may continue to be contracted out to partners in the Network. Back to Table of Contents

MANAGEMENT TEAM
Members of the current Management Team and its precursor Design Team have contributed energy, commitment, and talent on an in-kind basis. The Management Team has met in numerous half-day or daylong meetings since March 2000. These meetings have helped build a foundation of trust and a framework for collaboration. This group (see list to the right) has successfully designed the organization and targets outlined in this prospectus; raised early start-up funds totaling $389,500, launched the Practitioners Learning Network; and coordinated efforts in three tobacco-dependent communities to create economic renewal. This team will be phased out when the Governing Council is put in place with some members of the Management Team becoming members of the new Governing Council. Back to Table of Contents

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS
PROJECTIONS THROUGH 2005
The estimated revenues and expenses through 2005 are outlines in Table 1. Greater detail for revenues can be found in Table 2 and for expenses in Table 3.

Table 1: Three Year Projections

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REVENUE SOURCES
The costs of the infrastructure of connection will be supported by a mix of revenue generated by network participants and core activities as well as contributions from underwriters.
Partner Fees – all Network partners will be asked to pay an annual fee to demonstrate that the network has sufficient value for its participants. The suggested fee structure will be tiered based on the annual budget of the participating organization:

Tier Size Annual Fee
1 Individuals/Organizations < $100,000 $100
2 Organizations between $100,001 – 500,000 $200
3 Organizations between $500,001 - $2 million $500
4 Organizations > $2 million $1000

Learning Fees – participants in the learning activities of the PLN will pay a small fee to offset the logistical costs of the event. The fee has been set at $40 per event, with funds available to provide scholarships.

Brokering Fees – the Solutions Network will retain up to 15% of the total amount of any fees that pass between a funding partner and a practitioner or technical assistance provider or a community. This fee represents the value-added of the Network.

Underwriting Contributions – Estimated fees from participants and brokering will generate $135,000 by the third year of operations. Because this amount is not enough to fully staff and support the infrastructure of connection, the Solutions Network will seek out philanthropic investors to underwrite its operations. These investors will be partners in the Network with the related benefits and services of the relationship defined by the Network and the investor. The total project amount needed through 2005 is $360,000.

Revenue projections are shown in Table 2. These projections will be refined as they are tested with practitioners and funding partners.

Table 2: Three Year Revenue Projections

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EXPENSE PROJECTIONS
There are two categories of expenses within the Solutions Network. The first category includes the basic costs of developing and maintaining the infrastructure of connection between the participants in the Network. This category includes such expenses as the core staff, the website, meetings of the Governing Council, and gatherings of the Practitioners Learning Network. These expenses will be kept to a minimum by leveraging the resources and connections within the Network. For example, the staff of the Network may be housed for a reduced rate at a partner organization, the website may be maintained by another partner, and another partner may provide access to videoconferencing expenses. Table 3 outlines the costs of this infrastructure of connection and assumes the full cost of these expenses without the potential reductions that will be generated by partner contributions.

The second category of expenses is for projects of benefit to North Carolina’s communities and partners in the Network. These projects will be brokered between a funding partner, one or more communities, and the partners providing the coaching and other relevant expertise. For example, community readiness tools might be developed through a network partnership that includes a funder such as Progress Energy, Doug Easterling and others at the Center for Study of Social Issues at UNC-Greensboro as the evaluation experts, an experienced community coach such as Handmade in America, and communities where the tools would be piloted. The cost of these projects is not included in the expense projections in Table 1 as these budgets will be developed as the project partnerships are developed and funded. No funds will be spent on these projects without an identified source of funds.

Table 3: Projected Expenses for the Infrastructure of Connection

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APPENDIX 1
NETWORK CLUSTER RESPONSIBILITIES AND DELIVERABLES
PRACTITIONERS LEARNING NETWORK

Responsibilities:

• Map the capacities and interests of the participants in the PLN and create an accessible database
• Develop methods and teams for assisting community leaders and coaches as they get “stuck”
• Develop learning activities that fit the needs and learning styles of PLN participants
• Identify and invite coaches, TA providers, and other practitioners to participate in the PLN
• Develop partnerships with other learning entities
• Develop a set of operating principles for coaches and TA providers to use in their community work
• Create a participant revenue model to support the activities of the PLN (money and time)

Deliverables and Timeline:

• Learning activities, twice a year
• Regional activities as coordinated by local practitioners.

Note: The PLN is large enough that it may need its own Governing Council and a part-time coordinator to organize the logistics of the learning activities.

BROKER CLUSTER

Responsibilities:

• Identify potential funding partners (state government agencies, federal government agencies, foundations, and others) who are promoting collaborative community problem-solving
• Develop packages of services to meet the needs and goals of potential funding partners
• Advocate for communities that are often overlooked with potential funding partners
• Develop tools and processes for assessing the alignment of potential funding partners with the purpose and principles of NCCSN
• Develop tools and processes for assessing the readiness of communities to engage in a collaborative community problem-solving initiative
• Work with the PLN to develop a clear set of operating principles and expectations for coaches and TA providers
• Strategize when there are problems in the relationships between communities, coaches, and funding partners
• Monitor the implementation of the brokered packages, reflect and learn, and communicate to the whole Network
• Hire and supervise any contractors related to these responsibilities
  
  Deliverables:
  
• List of potential funding partners and their needs
• Tools and processes for assessing the alignment of funding partners
• Tools and processes for assessing the readiness of communities
• Brokered packages of services with funding agencies
• Operating principles for coaches to use
• Reports on what has been learned from the experience in communities

EVALUATION CLUSTER

Responsibilities:

• Develop tools and processes to provide feedback for learning and improvement to coaches and TA providers
• Develop tools and processes to evaluate the impact of community problem-solving activities brokered by NCCSN
• Translate the evaluation data into stories that communicate the value of community problem-solving
• Hire and supervise any contractors related to these responsibilities
  
  Deliverables:
  
• Tools and processes to evaluate coaches
• Tools and processes to evaluate the impact of community problem-solving activities
• Case studies documenting impact and value of community problem-solving activities

WEBSITE CLUSTER

Responsibilities:

• Work with the Governing Council and with the Broker Cluster and PLN to identify the purpose and content of the website
• Integrate the database of practitioners into the website
• Design the website to fit the designated purpose (could be contracted out)
• Hire and supervise any contractors related to these responsibilities

Deliverables:
Website

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APPENDIX 2
NETWORK COORDINATOR RESPONSIBILITIES
The following list is not meant to be a definitive ‘job description’ but rather the basis for conversation about Network “Core Staff” in the context of page 19 in this Prospectus. A variety of staffing options will be considered as how to best perform the functions and activities listed here and throughout the Prospectus.

• Hold the center for the purpose and principles as the guide for action and relationships within the Network
• Respond to requests from communities and potential funding partners and refer to appropriate participants in the Network
• Serve as the connector between the clusters by participating in all clusters
• Coordinate the logistics of all cluster meetings
• Coordinate the logistics of PLN learning activities in concert with a team from the PLN
• Coordinate meetings of the Governing Council
• Coordinate representation of the Network to conferences
• Shepherd new participants into the Network
• Consult with knowledgeable partners on decisions
• Prepare and manage the budget in consultation with the Governing Council
• Select and interact with vendors and professional advisors such as accountants, attorneys, designers
• Market the Network and its resources to potential funding partners
• Negotiate expectations in brokered relationships
• Maintain the database of Network participants (could be another staff member)
• Maintain the Network’s website (could be another staff member)
• Maintain the flow of communication between participants in the Network