Collaborative Connections

Collaborative Connections aims to promote positive, sustainable change in communities and organizations by helping people visualize, plan, and implement consensus-based strategies aimed at reaching goals they envision for themselves. Collaborative Connections lives out of the value that people, if given an opportunity, are incredibly capable of planning their own future. Our approach to working with clients is both responsive and intentional. We use time-tested methods to engage all stakeholders to reach consensus and to formulate realistic implementation plans. Collaborative Connections uses highly participatory techniques to foster creative thinking, consensus-based decision-making, and team building. These proprietary methods - Technology of Participation (ToP)® Facilitation Methods - were developed and validated over the past fifty years in a broad variety of group settings in the US and throughout the world. ToP Facilitation Methods generate ownership, create clear goals, open lines of communication, broaden perspectives, and motivate people to adapt to their changing environment while honoring cultural traditions and diversity of all involved. Collaborative Connections fulfills these objectives in three primary ways: Providing facilitation services for organizations and communities seeking to maximize participation in decision making; Offering consulting services to organizations or communities on how to co-create programs or projects with the constituencies they serve; and Training others in facilitation methods, organizational anti-racism frameworks, and asset-based community development to support their capacity to be able to work with others to create implementable plans of action.