A community of practice (CoP) brings together a group who share a common interest or domain to exchange ideas on approaches, develop skills, and collaborate in a peer-to-peer setting.
A CoP can be designed for different levels of experience, different organizations, or locations. Some CoPs advance a specific technical approach or methodology, others support an emergent knowledge area.
Members engage at regular times over a specific duration to exchange ideas, experiences, and best practices, or problem-solving related to their shared domain of interest.
Communities
of practice
Community Wealth Building with Social Innovation Canada and Tamarack Institute
Please note that this Community of Practice has now concluded.
Social Innovation Canada was excited to co-host a monthly Community Wealth Building Community of Practice with the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement.
Whether you work with a municipality, local place-based partnerships, community organizations, or anchor institutions, this Community of Practice offered valuable opportunities to build connections and advance your understanding of CWB.
This Community of Practice honors the lands and homes of Indigenous peoples and their subsistence economies. We recognize and appreciate the sharing of histories, cultures, knowledge, diplomacy, economy, and worldviews with us and we will explore pathways of community wealth-building and decolonization.
Provincial Social Innovation Practice Community
Please note that this Community of Practice has now concluded.
SI Canada was thrilled to launch our Provincial Social Innovation Practice Community, a virtual gathering that was held monthly. This initiative was a collaborative effort, co-designed with the Conseil de l’innovation du Québec and La Collaborative at McMaster University. Our goal was to create a dynamic platform for public service professionals to connect, share, and learn about social innovation.
Public service professionals in government and governmental agencies play a crucial role in the social innovation sector. Despite facing similar challenges, there are limited opportunities for these professionals to connect and learn. Recognizing this gap, our partners have come together to establish a community of practice aimed at fostering shared learning and strengthening our national ecosystem.
More about communities
of practice
Communities of Practice (CoP) are an important way SI Canada pollinates knowledge and know-how across jurisdictions and between people. We use this methodology as a way to weave relationships, seed ideas, and accelerate what is working for community-based knowledge to be shared through peer-to-peer experiences.
Over time, SI Canada developed three streams of CoPs called, “Learn, Share, Build”. Each has a different purpose to meet the objectives of the participants.
Learn
Practitioners in the Learn stream focus on sharing knowledge of new methodologies, exploring how to apply a methodology, or adapting a process for a specific setting. Knowledge can come from members of the group; as well as, from experts within a domain. An example of this is the CoP on Inclusive Economies for Mid-Sized Cities where four Ontario cities shared examples of how social procurement, community benefit agreements, and inclusive workplace charters could be applied in their regions. Participants each brought expertise in one of the areas of learning; as well, experts were sought when needed for more technical insights.
Share/Connect
Practitioners in the Share/Connect stream aim to broker new relationships and receive updates from the field. It usually includes people from a range of experiences and benefits from an online connectivity tool to help people engage with one another. An example was bi-monthly sessions facilitated by SI Canada on topics related to Social R&D. Formats such as a Peer Input Process or Open Space sessions were used to keep informed on what is going on in the field, identify opportunities for collaboration, and connect practitioners. In addition, our online tool/platform (Common Platform) was leveraged to connect practitioners and support them to engage with one another.
Build
Practitioners in the Build stream have identified specific goals they want to accomplish. For example; this stream of the Social R&D CoP was designed to engage more experienced practitioners who are eager to contribute towards building the social R&D field and are looking to establish their role as thought leaders. Practitioners in this stream engaged on an as-needed basis to form working groups around specific projects. These working groups supported the development of tangible outputs and events to advance the social R&D field.