2024 UNCG Annual Conference
Roots & Growth: June 20-22 in Portland, Oregon
Hosted by Portland State University's National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC)
The University Network for Collaborative Governance’s Annual Conference will bring UNCG members and friends together in Portland to engage in a lively discussion about collaborative governance's roots and potential growth. Our location in Oregon will also allow attendees to share how collaborative governance has evolved and grown through on-the-ground efforts.
More details are here.
UNCG Zoom Discussions
UNCG Zoom discussions are free for members. Non-members who are interested are welcome to attend for a small registration fee ($5 - $25 sliding scale) to UNCG.
Teaching / Training Bi-monthly Discussions
Join us for informal members' discussion on collaborative governance teaching & training (Zoom link - contact Nujhat Ahmed or Pooja Di Giovanna with questions.)
- March 11, 2024: 10am Pacific, 11am Mountain, 12noon Central, 1pm Eastern
- May 13, 2024: 10am Pacific, 11am Mountain, 12noon Central, 1pm Eastern
Exploring the Intersection of Collaborative Governance and Restorative Justice
- April 9, 2024 (9m Pacific, 10am Mountain, 11an Central, 12pm Eastern). Zoom link to register.
Join this interactive session where discussion leaders and participants will collectively explore and assess the potential intersections of collaborative governance and restorative justice. After a short introduction in restorative justice values and principles, participants will engage around the following types of questions (or other questions that emerge in the engagement):
- How do practitioners in collaborative governance currently navigate acute and historical harm in their coordination and facilitation? Are the current tools and models sufficient to the need?
- Does restorative justice fit into the overarching framework of collaborative governance? Does restorative justice have a role, and if so, in which contexts of collaborative governance?
- How might collaborative governance practitioners assess the need for harm intervention – how to determine whether success is possible without addressing historic or ongoing harm.
- Within our social context, is it possible to create and facilitate equitable processes without addressing existing historical inequities?
2023 UNCG Annual Conference (In-person)
Collaborative Governance in Action: On the Ground in Virginia
October 26 - 28, 2023 in Charlottesville, VA
Hosted by the University of Virginia's Institute for Engagement & Negotiation (IEN)
More information here
Past Zoom Gatherings:
AI: The Potentials and Cautions for Our Work (January 2024)
Joint conversation with UNCG and the Consortium of University Public Service Organizations (CUPSO). How can AI support our work? How can we be aware of and mitigate potential pitfalls, such as privacy concerns and the need for human, community connections. 3 members will share potential and cautions they see in working with AI as it relates to applied public service and collaborative governance work, teaching, and scholarship. Participants will be invited to share their experiences and pose questions.
When the State Prioritizes a Wicked Problem: Lessons Learned from myFutureNC Local Educational Attainment Collaboratives (December 2023)
The ncIMPACT Initiative (ncIMPACT) is a statewide initiative launched by the UNC School of Government in 2017 to help local communities use data and evidence to improve conditions and inform decision-making. This work responded to state legislation setting a goal of having 2 million state residents with a post-secondary credential – a high-value certificate or degree - by 2030. Presenters will share lessons learned from the “myFutureNC Local Educational Attainment Collaboratives.” This pilot program supported 15 local educational attainment collaboratives across North Carolina seeking to significantly increase the number of students successfully completing post-secondary credentials of value in the workforce. The collaboratives offered an opportunity for synergetic governance responding to community challenges that no single institution or even an entire sector could effectively tackle. ncIMPACT’s work and mission fit into collaborative governance by working with diverse sectors to build local systems that are robust and sustainable. Because communities know their local context best, ncIMPACT strives to empower communities to identify and enact solutions that will be most appropriate and effective for them.
This Zoom Gathering will detail the project's early successes and challenges in using state and non-state actors to produce systems improvements. We will highlight examples from participating collaboratives demonstrating key conditions of systems change, namely policies, practices, resource flows, relationships and connections, power dynamics, and mental models.
Collaborative Governance and Democracy: Members from UNCG's Research / Scholarship Sub-Committee Chairs (May 2023)
Coming out of 2022's UNCG Annual Conference in Boise, a conversation between long-time UNCG members Wendy Willis and Palma Strand has led them to a research project draws from the experience and perspectives of UNCG members to explore how collaborative governance "fits" in and with the U.S. constitutional system. Join this Zoom discussion to hear more about their plan and, most importantly, to contribute your voice and perspectives!
Collaborative governance nests within the U.S. constitutional system. Collaborative governance has been used to develop and implement policy on numerous public issues and at numerous institutional levels (federal, state, regional, local). Collaborative governance sometimes supplements and sometimes replaces conventional governance processes. Both the U.S. constitutional system and collaborative governance processes assert grounding in democratic principles. There is a perception that conventional governance processes are often ill-suited for addressing “wicked problems” – complex public problems that are adaptive and systemic – and that collaborative governance offers a way for communities to grapple inclusively and productively toward constructive interventions to move forward. Historically, collaborative governance has emerged from and in contexts in which “nothing else worked.”
While the experience and commitment of UNCG members – and others – to collaborative governance is strong and deep, the theoretical grounding for collaborative governance is under-developed. This project aims to tap into the experience, knowledge, and wisdom of UNCG members as a starting point for articulating the “why” of collaborative governance in the existing U.S. constitutional system.
Working in Communities with Collective Trauma: Some Lessons (July 2023)
The last decade has seen COVID-19, recurrent episodes of mass gun violence, and multiple murders of black people by police or vigilantes, among other events. We all have become more familiar with basic concepts of both individual and collective trauma. However, most communities in the United States and elsewhere have histories reaching back decades and centuries that also have produced collective trauma. Frank Dukes will offer examples from his work or of how he and his partners have acknowledged and addressed such trauma. He will then invite a conversation among participants about how are the prevalence of collective trauma impacts our profession’s needs and obligations.
UNCG 2023 Retreat (Wyoming)
This retreat combined two of UNCG's Strategic Areas: Teaching / Training and Research / Scholarship. Thank you to the University of Wyoming's Ruckelshaus Institute for hosting and making arrangements to bring UNCG members from around the country together for joint work focusing on these two areas.