What You'll Learn
This strategy-focused course is for anyone working collaboratively with community members, coalitions, nonprofits, public agencies, or cross-sector partners. Designed for both new and long-standing collaboratives, the course addresses a common challenge: how to keep people engaged, participating, and moving forward together over time—especially when the work is complex and voluntary.
You’ll explore five core strategies for maintaining momentum, including setting clear time boundaries, strengthening relationships across the group, balancing dialogue with action, redefining what “action” looks like, and shifting the stories we tell about commitment. Grounded in the Civic Canopy’s Community Learning Model, the course blends research, real-world examples, and facilitation tools to help groups create the conditions for trust, shared ownership, and sustained collaboration—even when energy dips or conflict arises.
How to create momentum through time-bound collaboration
Use the four meeting launch sequence to harness the power of collaborative action by quickly defining your problem, your purpose, and your core strategies.
How to strengthen relationships across a collaborative network
Move from a fragile “hub-and-spoke” model to a resilient web of relationships that support shared accountability, trust, and long-term engagement.
How to assess common challenges and apply interventions
Learn to move from dialogue to action, redefine action, and reframe the story in ways that move the group forward with tools like 15% solutions, SCARF, and GRPI.
What's Included in the Course
This course allows you to access the material at your own pace, online. Each module will provide you with an instructional video and tell you how long that module will take you to complete. Some modules include tasks or toolkits that encourage you to pause and apply your learning to a scenario you are currently working on. At the end of the modules, you’ll get access to the slides from the course. Then, we’ll ask you to submit your feedback on the course.
Workshop Modules
Meet Your Instructor
Kale McMonagle
Collaboration Director
Kale manages Canopy projects that provide capacity building for individuals, organizations and coalitions. This includes providing training, facilitation, coaching, and project management for collaborative initiatives across the state. Throughout her work, she ensures alignment with the Canopy’s Community Learning Model by championing the Canopy’s evaluation tools. Kale brings extensive ample experience in cultivating regional relationships, designing innovative public processes, recruiting diverse stakeholders, and crafting powerful stories about collaboration. Kale received her BA and MA in Communication Studies, Deliberative Studies Specialization from Colorado State University.
