People who run collective impact efforts say one of their toughest tasks is keeping community engagement going beyond the “summits” where everyone gets fired up. What does it mean to keep communities engaged in the mission that they’ve signed on for? Why is it so hard to do this well?

I’ve spent much of this year helping people learn collective impact strategies in communities around the United States, but last week I did some learning myself – by seeing how collective impact is done in the country of Honduras.

“In any given week, you could go to three meetings and hear the same report three times.” “Too many people are coming to us with too many asks.” These are some of the recurring sentiments that prompted the leaders of collective impact initiatives in Northern Kentucky to ask, “What would it look like if we realigned?”

Eric, the founder of Citizen Schools, has a new book coming out that shows us why we should all pay more attention:  The Opportunity Equation: How Citizen Teachers Are Combating the Achievement Gap in America's Schools.

There is a distinct gap between what it takes to make it to graduation and being ready for adulthood.