Between 2017 and 2020, Firelight embarked upon a learning journey to listen deeply to CBO grantee-partners & understand how to better support them in creating lasting change at the community level for children, youth, and families. Now, they are sharing these insights with the wider sector as a source of guidance to funders, INGOs, practitioners, and scholars. Both objectives were driven by a realization that there was limited documented and published evidence on how to strengthen the capacity and success of CBOs, especially from the perspectives of CBOs themselves.
THE POWER OF GRASSROOTS LED CHANGE FOR LONG TERM IMPACT AND HOW FUNDERS CAN NURTURE IT
COMMUNITY DRIVEN SYSTEMS CHANGE
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Lasting impact at the community level happens through community driven systems change.
Community-based organizations (CBOs) hold a particularly important role in fostering community-driven systems change.
Funders are struggling to achieve high impact relationships with CBOs.
We must reconceptualize our approach to funding CBOs to achieve longlasting, systemic impact
What is community driven systems change?
Community-driven systems change is an approach to development and social transformation that emphasizes the insight, leadership, and ownership of the people who are living and experiencing issues at the community level, and their work to create lasting change in the systems and root causes that underlie the critical issues they seek to address.
Key takeaways include:
