Collective Impact is working with faculty members of the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Center for Sustainable Business and Development, Department of Political Science, and Department of Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management to conduct a research project to better understand Appalachian tourism and identify opportunities to grow tourism activities and encourage business development throughout the region. The project is funded through a competitive grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) - a federal economic development agency. The project is the largest and most comprehensive study of tourism ever conducted by the commission, which covers 205,000 square miles across 420 counties in 13 states. Results of the study will help us better understand the state of tourism of the region, new growth areas for tourism in Appalachian communities, and best practices and successful strategies to help the communities succeed. The project will use research, surveys, site visits, and focus groups as part of the research method. The project also will identify communities to use as case studies to illustrate local tourism success stories and best practices for tourism business development.

Collective Impact worked with First 5 Ventura County (F5VC) to implement a “Research to Action” project funded by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) involving several EC-LINC communities. The mission of EC-LINC is to support families and improve results for young children in communities across the country with a focus on accelerating the development of effective, integrated, local early childhood systems. Along with several EC-LINC communities in California and Massachusetts, F5VC set out to establish the effectiveness of playgroups in the continuum of care for serving young children (birth to three) and their families, maximize the benefits of playgroups, and demonstrate the impact of playgroups on long-term outcomes. This project included an extensive literature review, interviews and a survey of current practices with participating communities, development of recommended best practice and evaluation frameworks, onsite convening of participating communities, and the development of a final report with key findings and recommendations.

"Bruce Decker was assigned to the City of Shinnston as our Community Coach during our participation in Federal Home Loan Bank's Blueprint Communities Program.  Our team was very new to the concept of community development and Bruce was an integral part of bringing us around to the highly effective team we are today.  Particularly while facilitating our efforts to write a strategic plan for the City of Shinnston, Bruce was incredibly skilled in drawing from us OUR ideas of what we wanted Shinnston to become and the steps to get us there.  Our plan won an award in the course of the program and is currently undergoing its third update as we accomplish one goal after another."  ~ Debra Herndon, City Manager, City of Shinnston, WV

The Teachers College of Columbia University was the first and largest graduate school of education in the United States and is perennially ranked among the nation’s best. With financial support from the Wallace Foundation, the Teachers College engaged in research relating to collective engagement around education reform.  The report describes development in the new generation of cross-sector collaborations for education and presents findings from a scan of initiatives across the United States. In this report, Collective Impact, LLC is identified as the first entity to coin the term "Collective Impact" in the early 2000's (page 6, footnote 7). This is an instructive example of how cross-sector collaborations have been bubbling up for several decades. Read the article by clicking here!