LAURA PORTER, ACE INTERFACE
I want to open by talking about this word coalesce. Coalesce means to grow together and think of it as we're uniting people through a common goal, but we're doing it through learning and growth. So, a coalition is put together for a specific reason, we might want to put one together for creating a healing centered community, but that's pretty extract. Coalitions usually come together because there is some significant need in the community or in the interest group and then they go on a journey together to learn together and so we have to think of coalitions like we think of communities. They're living systems.
So, when we think about growing together, what are we growing. We're growing the capacity to solve problems, which means we have to build into our coalition development, some civic skill building, some building of and modeling healthy relationships and trauma-informed ways of interacting with human beings inside of the group, or the community, and then the ability to identify and activate really fit situations and honestly evaluate success.
These are pretty rare, this set of skills you won't find in everyone who would like to start a coalition. So, in part what you're going to do, is think about your own skills and think about who you need to be on a core team. I think of it as the group that you huddle with, the group that you might have a breakfast meeting with once a week and figure out what's our strategy and what we are heading for.
You're going to build the processes that are trustworthy, and that means when you say that you're going to do something, you do it and that you put regular and systematic times in place for your action. People can relate to you, even people who don't easily trust others, begin to understand that they can trust your process.
Photo Credit - ACE Interface
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