Search

Cross-sector and inter-disciplinary coordination for complex social change requires the strategic narratives and insights that can come from systemic collective impact, also known as community-based system dynamics. Systemic collective impact is a community engagement approach that uses system dynamics and collective impact to address problems arising in complex social systems. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s website describes system dynamics as helping “us understand, design, and manage change. Using data and technology, System Dynamics models the relationships between all the parts of a system and how those relationships influence the behavior of the system over time” (2019). Rapid City, South Dakota, undertook a systemic collective impact approach in 2015. Results from the work have been excellent and are a tribute to the commitment of a cross-disciplinary collaboration of Native American leadership, nonprofits, government, business, faith communities, and citizens who use the social service systems.

In Rapid City, South Dakota, community, business, nonprofit, and faith communities leaders, along with a number of citizens across all demographics, are collaborating in a unique plan to create quality of life for all its citizens. Named Rapid City Collective Impact (RCCI), this initiative began with the vision of several local philanthropists and has expanded quickly throughout the community. Cultural anthropologist Albert Linderman along with expertise from community based systems dynamics experts Don Greer, Megan Odenthal, and Christine Capra have formed a facilitative “backbone” organization for RCCI. Based on the model for “Collective Impact” made popular by an article by a Stanford Innovation Review article by authors John Kania and Mark Kramer, organizations and programs serving Rapid City citizens are committed to significantly increasing the amount of collaboration occurring within the social service sector, while business and other community leaders work to leverage newly understood leverage points within the intersecting systems of the city which often limits ability to address entrenched social issues.