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 This month, the James Irvine Foundation released a new report titled ?Collaborative Regional Initiatives: Civic Entrepreneurs Work to Fill the Governance Gap.? This report is the result of three years of research and analysis by the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD) at UC Berkeley. The research, outlined in this report, found that Collaborative Regional Initiatives (CRIs) can be important vehicles for engaging a range of stakeholders around a variety of regional-level issues.
The Irvine Foundation defines CRIs as ?partnerships that engage diverse stakeholders seeking to enhance economic vitality, increase social equity, and protect the natural environment.? From 1997 to 2004, the Irvine Foundation invested more than $20 million in 17 CRIs in California to see if such regional collaboration could help create long-lasting solutions.
Following are a selection of key findings from the report:
- To be successful, collaborative regional organizations must be homegrown, built by those who best understand the region.
- CRI leaders who are most effective do not control the dialogue or insist on their way. They inspire, encourage, convene, and support. They build leadership in others. They train others to be collaborative leaders. They welcome innovation and embrace challenges.
- The organization?s theory of change is critical to all that it does. This theory should be made explicit so it can be tested and adapted as needed. The theory of change may not be suited to all tasks, but whatever the theory is, tasks need to be feasible, clear, and manageable in scope.
- CRIs are good at many things: building regional social, intellectual, and political capital; reframing contentious issues so they can be addressed constructively; acting as a neutral convener and provider of trusted knowledge; drawing in new voices and new perspectives to address regional issues; developing innovative solutions; building regional identity; turning leaders? attention to regional sustainability; and energizing and educating civic entrepreneurs.
- Research plays a critical role in regional change and helping civic leaders fill governance gaps, but only if certain conditions are met. It must be produced by a trusted source. Its methods must be transparent and reviewed by stakeholders. It must be perceived as unbiased and not designed to promote a particular policy. There must be opportunity for dialogue during and after the production of the research so it can have shared meaning.
- CRIs are network structures, an emergent form of organization involving loosely linked autonomous players connected to one another in a variety of patterns. Information and social capital flow through these networks, and the participants share heuristics, feedback, and new needs and opportunities. They serve as a kind of distributed intelligence, and they can act in a self-organizing and adaptive way even without central guidance.
The report highlights the efforts of four CRIs in California:
- The Sierra Business Council (SBC) supported research, dialogue, and projects to help businesspeople and local governments incorporate an understanding of the role of the natural environment across the Sierra region.
- Joint Venture: Silicon Valley (JV:SV) engaged business leaders and other leaders in this high-technology region to develop and implement projects designed to improve its economy, applying a venture capital approach.
- San Diego Dialogue (SDD), which was sponsored by UC San Diego, relied on university research to engage civic leaders at the highest level in identifying problems and issues that required regional action.
- The Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities (BAASC)a coalition of leaders representing business, the environment, and equityfocused on developing a compact for smart growth and creating socially responsible investment in poor neighborhoods.
For more information or to download the full report, visit the Irvine Foundation?s website at www.irvine.org/publications/by_topic/civic.shtml.
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