ICL BLOG

Expanding Collaboration Virtually A Case Study: The Southwest Pennsylvania Water Network

by 
July 17, 2020

Event Details

Date: Thursday, July 30, 2020

Time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm EST

Cost: A Free Webinar, includes a link to the webinar recording

Hosts and Facilitators: Joy Jackson & Dianne Russell with ICL

Guests:

  • Matthew Barron, Senior Program Officer for Sustainability, The Heinz Endowments
  • Alison De Luise, Senior Advisor, The Water Center at University of Pennsylvania
  • Lydia Morin, Executive Director, CONNECT

Please register by 8:00pm EST on Tuesday, July 28th

Register Here

In a region where three rivers converge, crossing multiple counties, cities, and municipalities, finding solutions to provide clean water for multiple purposes has grown increasingly challenging. The region faces increasing flooding, infrastructure challenges, and competing needs across many diverse watersheds. Yet, in the face of these realities, a possible network is emerging in the region – of individuals, community and business leaders – that are working together to find a way to adapt water policy, systems, and practices so public health and the environment are protected.

Gain new ideas and inspiration from the Southwest Pennsylvania Water Network, and hear how this emerging network continued to move its work for water quality forward despite the need to move everything online. Faced with cancelled March meetings intended as the next step in building new stakeholder engagement, this network nimbly adapted and created strong engagement, and benefited from significant input from over 80 potential new participants.

Guests from the Southwest Pennsylvania Water Network will discuss how they orchestrated a collaborative interactive virtual process that successfully garnered input for their future direction, better understood new participants’ interest in collaborating, and built relationships across a large region.

Join us for 60 minutes that will fuel your own virtual collaborative processes and leadership. You will walk away from the webinar with an understanding of both how the process of engagement worked, and some network theories that guided the work.

Participants will learn:

  • An example of how a network is forming and the needs of an early-stage network
  • The combination of virtual engagement strategies that built engagement
  • The tools used to build connections and gather crucial input on issues and needs
  • The next steps and growth edges for this network over the coming months

Audience: All those supporting and leading collaborative efforts —

  • Network coordinators,
  • Collaboration “backbone” staff,
  • Those funding and supporting collaborations

 

Photo Credit: pariveroftheyear.org