I’m fortunate to be a participant in a number of York Region social change initiatives. These groups plan and implement projects that strive to make a difference in our York Region community.

This post is about the shared journey that these groups are following and the interconnectedness of these diverse yet complementary initiatives.

From my vantage point I recognize how these unique programs, working towards a common purpose of a stronger, healthier, inclusive York Region, are implementing their projects with values sets that are very similar or at the least overlapping.

I thought it would an interesting reflection exercise to map out these initiatives with their diverse, yet shared value sets. Firing up my Mindmeister collaboration mapping software (free) I began adding the names of these initiatives and what I believed were the predominant supporting values that guided activities within the initiatives.

The final outcome is 2 maps. The first map (on top of page) reflects what I see are the value sets that provide a guiding theoretical base to those projects. The value sets are not connected to any one initiative as they often overlap or apply to multiple initiatives.

The lower map contains the initiatives that from my perspective are sharing similar purposes. Please appreciate that many of these initiatives are under development and not fully implemented at this time.

I know there are many other initiatives that are emerging in York Region that could be part of my map. If you know of or a part of these initiatives you can send that information to me and I would be happy to add these to this map.

Collaborate Online – You can add your initiative and value set to an online collaboration map. This map can grow and show even a larger picture of the changes that are emerging in York Region.

You can participate in building a larger collaboration map of York Region Initiatives. You can do this by visiting my Mindmeister map and add the name of the initiative to the map. you can also visit this map to add the “value set” or lens used in the initiative that you have listed.

To help you get a sense of what a few of these value sets mean, I’ve added links to online resources  that further describe the value sets.

4 C’s of Social Media – Gaurav Mishra (Content, Collaboration, Community, Collective Intelligence)

Complex Adaptive Systems – Nine_Lead_Principles PDF

Knowledge Mobilization – Research Impact – York University

Informal Learning – Jay Cross

Resiliency Framework

Social Determinants of Health

Mindmeister Collaborative Online Mapping Software

Brent Uncategorized networks valuesets lens