Capacity That Strengthens Communities

Strong and capable community-based leaders, organizations and coalitions are fundamental to the development of community health and well-being in Arizona. For this reason, Vitalyst continued its long tradition of capacity building investment in FY2019, including several adaptive approaches. Among the highlights, Vitalyst:

• Implemented Facilitation For Accountability training, a cumulative curriculum combining several approaches that reached a diverse cohort of community leaders and organizations and coalitions. Vitalyst staff were also trained in the cohort.
• Facilitated a year-long cohort of its Nonprofit Impact Accelerator.
• Cultivated a non-profit leadership pipeline, including a professional interim Executive Director cohort.
• Released two key Storytelling resources in August 2018:
  • Storytelling as a Catalyst for Systems Change – a brief detailing three core change functions at the heart of powerful storytelling
  • Workbook: Storytelling for Resident Leaders – a comprehensive, step-by-step resource guide to be used in creating community-based stories
• Offered six technical assistance training sessions, on topics related to storytelling, collaboration for impact, nonprofit organizational lifecycles, fundraising and board development

FY2019 was also a year of evoluation for our capacity building strategy. As the director role for capacity building transitioned, Vitalyst conducted a “Spark Listening Tour” featuring more than 40 meetings statewide with the goal of reformulating our capacity building approach, informed directly by stakeholder feedback. Thanks to the generous time and consideration from those partners, the tour was a great success, and Vitalyst is honoring that energy and feedback with a new slate of technical assistance partnership tools as we enter FY2020.