Constructive Engagement

Engage with policy makers, practitioners and the public to make changes that further your impact goals

Introduction

How can we develop effective strategies to achieve our goals through policy change?

Generating positive social impact often requires working outside your own organization with partners, the public and policy leaders. When a key barrier to making change sits beyond your control (e.g., a policy that must be adapted or a behavior that must be altered) community-sector organizations have a variety of tools at their disposal to engage with other stakeholders and influence that shift.

Information session
For groups interested in Innoweave’s Constructive Engagement coaching stream, we encourage you to review our Information Session:

Watch a recording of an information session.
Download the slides from a session.
Register for the next upcoming session when available (see below).

Innoweave does not require groups to attend a Constructive Engagement workshop prior to registering in the online portal and submitting an Expression of Interest. Interested groups are welcome to contact Innoweave and request a full Constructive Engagement workshop, at (info@innoweave.ca).

What is Constructive Engagement?

Constructive Engagement helps leaders of community-sector organizations develop effective strategies to understand and work with policy makers, practitioners and the public to make specific changes that will directly improve the outcomes that the organization seeks and advance their mission.

This process often involves defining the barriers and opportunities to advancing the organization’s mission, understanding the priorities, beliefs, and constraints of policy makers and determining potential areas for success. Finally, it includes assessing and deciding among engagement tactics that will meet key objectives.

Constructive Engagement is a tool that can lead to important outcomes through collaborative work. For instance, discussions between disability groups and several governments led to the creation of the Registered Disability Savings Plan, which has provided long-term income security for thousands of people with disabilities.

The Innoweave self-assessment tool is designed to help you determine your organization's readiness and whether your initiative or program model is well suited for Constructive Engagement.

Self-
assessment

This assessment has 5 questions.

Please respond to each of the questions to the best of your ability by choosing the option that most accurately reflects your organizational context.

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Does your organization have a clear sense of the issue-level outcomes it wishes to achieve?

We have a mission but have not defined issue-level outcomes.

We have identified several possible issue-level outcomes we may wish to pursue.

Yes, we have clearly defined issue-level outcomes (e.g., employment retention, improved engagement of our target population, improved air or water quality).

We do not want to focus on specific changes. We want policy makers, practitioners, and/or the public to understand the importance of our issue and to provide better funding.

We have not yet identified the specific changes to policies or practices that need to take place but believe that we need to do so; and/or we have some ideas of how changes to policy or practices could help achieve our outcomes and/or how policy makers, practitioners and/or the public could play a role in this.

We know what policies or practices need to change, how policy makers, practitioners, and/or the public could play a role and how the change will affect outcomes.

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Do you know who you need to engage to make the policy or practice change that you require?

No, we do not know who we need to engage. We need to figure that out.

Yes, we have a general sense of who (policy makers, practitioners and/or public) we need to engage. For example, we know what level of government to engage, but not the specific policy maker, or we know we need to engage someone in hospitals or schools, but do not know which profession.

Yes, we know exactly which policy maker(s), practitioner(s) or segment of the public (e.g. particular businesses) we should engage.

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Do you have an understanding of how relevant ‘decision makers’ view your issue?

No, we have no idea and/or do not believe that any decision maker is really thinking about this issue at all.

We can guess what they might think but are not really sure and have not spoken with the decision makers directly.

Yes, we understand where they are coming from and want to work to change that and/or move them to action.

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What is your organization’s capacity to participate in a focused effort to legitimately influence the actions of policy makers and practitioners?

Our organization has capacity limitations due to lack of time among the management team, resource challenges, organizational instability or inflexible working structures.

Our organization has some capacity to take part, but faces challenges relating to resources or work process flexibility; however, these can be overcome.

Our organization has the flexibility to invest time and money on effective engagement.

We encourage all organizations to attend or view a pre-recorded Impact Accelerator before further exploring a coaching stream.

Upcoming Accelerators

Info Sessions & Workshops

Webinar: Réfléchir, réimaginer et rebâtir, Online July 7, 2020 Le parcours d’accompagnement Gérer en temps de crise a soutenu les organismes par du mentorat, des occasions de coaching et différentes ressources durant la...
Provided in French
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Can’t find what you’re looking for? We might have more events in French. Or, contact the Innoweave team to discuss hosting a learning event for you and other organizations in your community.

Coaches

Innoweave offers coaching support to organizations that are well positioned to implement a Constructive Engagement approach. You can connect with an Innoweave coach to help you explore and implement your initiative. Then apply to Innoweave for funds to support that coaching engagement.

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Apply for support

Your organization is eligible to apply for Innoweave coaching support if you have submitted an Expression of Interest and it has been approved.

Apply Now

FAQ

These are our most frequently asked questions.

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We need to engage with governments to get better funding for our work. Is Constructive Engagement the right approach?: No, Constructive Engagement is not about fundraising. It focuses on changing policies that can help lead to greater impact.
Our organization is small but we want to engage on big policy issues. How can we use Constructive Engagement?: Coaching in this stream may help you identify how you can get involved in large policy issues, but you may need to consider acting through a broader coalition. Constructive Engagement approaches may be able to help you plan how to do this.
Can Constructive Engagement help us build a grassroots social movement?: Coaching in this stream is not focused on social movements, but rather on the particular tools and approaches of engaging with leaders (in public and private sectors) to work with them to make policy changes.

Constructive Engagement

Introduction

How can we develop effective strategies to achieve our goals through policy change?

What is Constructive Engagement?

Self-assessment

Impact Accelerator

Info Sessions & Workshops

Coaches

Apply for support

FAQ

Self-
assessment