Knowledge Communities, in collaboration with Purpose Built Communities, have released a white paper (that you can download below) telling the story of Purpose Built’s successful and compelling journey to adopt and implement a Community of Practice (CoP) strategy to support neighborhood revitalization and racial equity. Specifically, the paper describes the Purpose Built CoP startup process, the status of the Purpose Built CoP as of early 2021 and success factors to date. Finally, the paper contains an appendix of tips for practitioners who support and manage CoPs and networks.

  • Read about how the Purpose Built Community of Practice (PB CoP) successfully supported a network of change makers across the country during COVID and continues to support them on an ongoing basis today.
  • Learn some practical strategies you might want to adopt as you build a community of practice.
  • Understand why the PB CoP exemplifies best practices from which many can learn.  

Communities of Practice bring together professionals who share a common set of challenges (e.g., Purpose Built Network leaders focused on place-based community development) on an ongoing basis to collaboratively solve problems and learn from each other.

Article Summary

Purpose Built Communities brings together Network Members — leaders and staff of organizations working to improve equity and opportunity in neighborhoods across the country — in a networked Community of Practice (CoP) structure. Knowledge sharing and collaboration helps local leaders in the Network tackle the complex challenge of intergenerational poverty to achieve racial equity, improved health outcomes and upward mobility for residents.

In 2019, with the generous support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Purpose Built Communities began moving from a hub-and-spokes structure (with Purpose Built serving as the hub), to a Community of Practice, also known as a networked model.

The Purpose Built Community of Practice stimulates problem recognition, and the creation, exchange and application of innovations to serve place-based neighborhood revitalization that moves people out of poverty.

The CoP’s structure and interactions help Network Members:

  • Build stronger relationships with supportive peers
  • Accelerate knowledge sharing
  • Respond rapidly and flexibly to changes in circumstances
  • Shorten learning curves to gain skills and expertise fundamental to Network Member excellence
  • Successfully implement the Purpose Built Communities model
  • Make informed decisions that create stronger outcomes

For more information, read the full white paper, “Value and Impact of the Purpose Built Community of Practice: 2019-2021″

Access the paper by downloading the resource at Network Weaver HERE or at Knowledge Communities’s website HERE.

The mission of Knowledge Communities is to create environments that optimize:

  • Trust building
  • Collaboration
  • Synergy
  • Knowledge Sharing
  • Generative Behaviors
  • Harness the productive dimensions of power and competition in the service of improving lives and bettering the world we live in.

Originally published at Knowledge Communities