Collective impact starts with a very powerful idea – that together we can make large scale social change. This transformation requires a common agenda, purpose and values, supported by broad cross-sector leadership, coordination, collaboration and engaged citizens. Working together, we can change the prevalence of domestic and sexual abuse and build healthy and sustainable communities throughout the province.
We believe that abuse is preventable. Our collective impact work allows us to focus on the root of the problem. Through identifying what drives and contributes to abuse, we can stop it before it begins. We focus our efforts far upstream of abusive events to better understand and interrupt the patterns that eventually lead to sexual and domestic abuse. In parallel, we and other collective impact members continue to provide expert intervention services when abuse occurs.
Creating collective impact requires an organization and staff with a specific set of skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative. In the role of backbone, we steward the creation of a vision and strategy for collective impact, mobilizing largescale change and advancing policy to eradicate domestic and sexual abuse.
We are the ‘backbone’ for IMPACT, the 304-member provincial collective impact initiative, and the 75-member Calgary Domestic Violence Collective (CDVC). Membership includes non-profit, government, policing and academic organizations.
For 30 years, the Calgary Domestic Violence Collective (CDVC) has served as the voice for agencies that are working to prevent domestic and sexual violence in Calgary. At our core, we are about creating space for connection, innovation, learning and growth. As self-organizers, we represent a broad range of organizations, sectors and political affiliations. Together, we are co-authoring our version of collective impact to address the complexities that underpin the systems and structures that support violence, and create deep and durable impact.
The IMPACT Initiative is a provincial collective initiative whose purpose is to define a common understanding of the issue of domestic and sexual violence and then to eradicate it. As a collective, we create a movement to achieve our goal, capitalizing on the strength of existing networks and using the resources, ideas, and influence of our collective membership to instigate systemic change in provincial perspectives, practices, policies, and legislation.