Collective impact—a framework where organizations across sectors come together with a shared vision—can play a big role in addressing complex issues like economic mobility.

This is especially important in cities like Charlotte, where decades of structural barriers have limited upward mobility for many residents.

Collective impact brings together nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies to work toward common goals, using data to measure progress and drive decisions.

Today’s guest, Khalil Salim, Ph.D., Director of Research and Evaluation at United Way of Greater Charlotte, shares his expertise on how this collaborative approach is being used to address Charlotte’s challenges, and his thoughts on Raj Chetty’s latest research.

You’ll Hear:

(03:09) What is the United Neighborhoods program and how does it use collective impact

(06:01) What makes collective impact different from other collaborative approaches

(11:00) How to measure and document success from a shared goal

(17:53) The challenges of doing collective impact work

(20:45) How to balance broader indicators with community-defined success metrics

Connect with Khalil Salim and learn more about his work with the United Neighborhoods program.

When it comes to conducting a needs assessment, one of the most important things you can do is listen to the community you’re trying to help.

Integrating community voice into your assessment creates programs and services that genuinely reflect what people need and want.

Community members have firsthand knowledge about the challenges they face and the resources they lack, which can really shape your understanding of the local landscape.

This episode kicks off a series that will give you strategies, tools, and resources needed to create stronger, more thorough assessments.

We’ll discuss where to find secondary data that can shed light on your community’s current landscape and how to collect your own data through surveys, focus groups, and interviews.

You’ll hear:

(01:33) What is a needs assessment?

(05:00) How to avoid assumptions and ensure community voice is central to your assessment

(07:18) Four key benefits of conducting a needs assessment for nonprofits

(11:32) Three steps to conducting an effective needs assessment

Behavioral health issues are closely linked to larger social and environmental factors.

That’s why communities need to come together and find sustainable solutions.

For those in human services, mental health, or prevention work, it’s easy to focus solely on delivering programs and services.

However, advancing your mission often involves looking beyond these to embrace advocacy, systems change, and environmental strategies.

Joining us is Kristin Kidd, co-coordinator of the SAMHSA-funded Southeast Prevention Technology Transfer Center and director of the North Carolina Behavioral Health Equity Initiative.

Kristin has a wealth of experience working with organizations that use community organizing to promote behavioral health equity.

We discuss how nonprofits can leverage advocacy and systems change to advance their missions, even within the constraints of nonprofit guidelines.

You’ll Hear:

(03:17) How community organizing can bring positive changes to behavioral health.

(07:52) How Kristin has gotten grantees out of the nonprofit industrial complex mindset.

(12:32) What it looks like to have community organizing in the behavioral health space.

(16:50) How coalitions and grantees are collecting data from the community to push for policy changes.

(23:04) How to go about advocacy in a non-partisan way.

(26:44) If Kristin forsees more organizations taking environmental approaches toward behavioral health challenges.

Connect with Kristin and learn more about the Southeast PTTC and NCBHEI.