Our Work
To increase the number of Black, Latinx and women Philadelphians going into STEM careers by 2030. This 10-year collaborative effort aims to bring together Philadelphia schools, out-of-school time providers, universities and colleges, businesses, employers, local government and the philanthropic community using a collective impact approach to identify and close gaps confronting individuals from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM.
100% of STEM careers in Philadelphia are demographically proportional to the population of working-age Philadelphians.
Collective Impact
Collective impact is a network of community members, organizations, and institutions who advance equity by learning together, aligning, and integrating their actions to achieve population and systems level change. It brings people together in a structured way to achieve social change.*
The Collective Impact framework contains five core conditions that together produce true alignment and lead to powerful results: the development of a common agenda; using shared measurement to understand progress; building on mutually reinforcing activities; engaging in continuous communications and providing a backbone to move the work forward.
Collective Impact: Overview
Achieving Large -Scale Change through Collective Impact Involves 5 Key Conditions for Shared Success
Shared Measurement
Collecting data and measuring results consistently across all participants ensures efforts remain aligned and participants hold each other accountable
Common Agenda
All participants have a shared vision for change including a common understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through agreed upon actions
Mutually Reinforcing Activities
Participant activities must be differentiated while still being coordinated through a mutually reinforcing plan of action
Continuous Communication
Consistent and open communication is needed across the many players to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and appreciate common motivation
Backbone Support
Creating and managing collective impact requires a separate organization with staff and a specific set of skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative and coordinate participating organizations and agencies
Source: Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work, 2012; FSG Interviews