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?”

Anyone working on collective impact strategies for children and youth should review this issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review – the journal that helped to launch the collective impact movement. A special supplement, Collective Insights on Collective Impact, offers nine articles from leading practitioners, funders, and thought leaders in the collective impact field, curated and funded by the Collective Impact Forum.

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.

What does it take to get young people ready for life?

Post mortems of community change initiatives frequently cite "lack of community engagement or buy-in" as a reason for failure.