Current Issue
Vol. 24 (2024): Innovations in Cross-Sector Collaborations: An Approach to Increase Ecosystem and Place-Based Impact
Dear Reader,
The Social Innovations Journal (SIJ) has been and is at the heart of collaborations and social impact for over 15 years. Since 2008, SIJ has brought nonprofits, philanthropy, government, businesses, and civic leaders together to collectively focus their expertise and resources on complex issues of importance.
In response to our readership and community expressing the need for greater coordination and coalition-building among organizations and across sectors, we are publishing this edition titled 'Innovations in Cross-Sector Collaborations: An Approach to Increase Ecosystem and Place-Based Impact'. This edition is complimentary to the prior editions curated by the Tamarak Institute titled Community Innovation: A Place-Based Approach to Social Innovation and Transformative Community titled Transformative Partnerships: Proceedings of Transformations.
Strategic collaborations that convene government, philanthropy, private sector, and community result in better 'collective' problem solving to address the core challenges of a region. These spark further innovations and collaborations across sectors based upon collective problem-solving approaches, attract and leverage federal, state, and local investments, drive regional policy change, and build capacity, learning from and with each other, of all sectors through the exploration, project development, and implementation of solutions.
Cross Sector Collaborations need to be based on relationships between organizations, people, and those collaborating around common interests. These relationships are not static, but rather grow and develop as new members continually come to the table. A regional cross-sector network cannot be an insular effort but needs to be an ever-evolving and inclusive network that embraces many types of organizations that strive to create educational practices and community approaches, develop the evidence for what works, and partner on research and action. Cross sector collaborations need to address problems by looking for what is working and why. This accelerates the process of positive change by occupying people with doing rather than dwelling on why it can't be done.
Cross sector collaborations need to lead by returning humanity to communities, including community voices, culture, lived experiences, empathy, and understanding. A cross-sector network needs to work towards improved partnerships and collaborations with regional and national associations and institutions that are aligned in strategies, efforts, and initiatives. The aim is to increase collaboration and inclusion of all participants in the ecosystem of the region to achieve healthy individuals and communities.
The intent of this edition is to inspire collaboration which will result in the creation of better problem-solving strategies addressing the core challenges that a region and communities face.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Torres
Co-Founder/Publisher
Published:
2024-04-22
Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Collective Impact and System Transformation
Education Models
Promising Practices
We accept article submissions in Education, Human Services, Social Mobility, and Health. We encourage article submissions to include components of Social Enterprise, System Change, Policy, and Collaborations.
Article Guidelines
- Please include a title for your article exactly as you would like them to appear once published.
- Please include the author(s) and affiliations immediately following the title
- Please include keywords (metadata) for searching purposes.
- Please include an abstract of your article and submit it along with your article.
- Font should be 12-point for the body of article and Times Roman style.
- Please remember to cite all sources for your article. We do NOT publish footnotes. We publish endnotes.
- For all graphics as well as charts, tables, and figures please embed them within the article exactly how you want them to appear. Please submit only high-resolution images for publishing. For all photos and images include a suggested caption and photo credit information (if required).
- We recommend articles being 1,000 – 1,500 words. Research articles are recommended to be between 4,000 – 6,000 words.
- Please define acronyms the first time they appear. Define trade or sector-specific terminology to ensure that your article is reader friendly. Keep in mind that you are writing to a broad audience that includes international readers.
Outline/Components
- Frame the issue and define the social problem and context clearly. What local context or circumstances gave rise to this particular problem?
- Offer the innovative solution and explain how your idea/model works. Include narrative regarding how you will know you have achieved success (outcome and/or impact measures).
- Differentiate your idea/model from current models. How is the solution distinct from current models?
- Provide insight into how the model is financed.
- Discuss scaling, scaling impact, and social and policy implications.
Tone and audience
- Bottom line writing: Begin with a concise executive summary (about 10% of total word count) that gives the gist of the article. Follow this with a narrative that is guided by the outline above.
- Academic framework: Place the social innovation within the context of best practice research. However, minimize use of citations and footnotes.
- Audience: Write for social investors, government, not-for-profits, academia and the private sector who have a vested interest in increasing their regional impact through high-impact social innovation.
Format
- Submit the article text as a Word file. Make sure figures/tables are fully editable (NOT LINKED).
- Provide references. References should be included at the end of the article. Please do not use FOOTNOTES or ENDNOTES.
- SIJ uses The Chicago Manual of Style (www.chicagomanualofstyle.org).
