What is the atlas?
We envision the Atlas as a permanent, “living” database, to which scholars and practitioners from around the world will contribute and use for analyses and research. Once fully built, the Atlas will contain hundreds — perhaps ultimately thousands — of “entries” about collaborative governance in numerous policy areas and locations.
Collaboration has been widely used in Oregon over the last 30 years to discuss public policy, deliver public services, and coordinate across a region. About two-thirds of the collaboratives formed to coordinate delivery of public services, and the other third formed to resolve a policy conflict or provide policy advice. The Atlas of Collaboration, Oregon Volume, Version 1.0, is an inventory of ongoing, state-connected collaboratives in Oregon that are associated with one of the 13 collaborative platforms operating in five policy areas.
Who is the Atlas for?
The Atlas aims to inform collaborative governance practitioners, scholars, and policymakers about when collaborative governance works and does not. Such knowledge will support more effective collaborative governance, an important outcome likely to contribute to the improved wellbeing of individuals and communities.
Key terms:
Collaborative governance is a term used to indicate the practice of bringing together multiple stakeholders in mutual forums to engage in decision making about problems that cannot be solved or easily solved by single organizations acting alone.
A state-connected collaborative (a) has a formal connection with state government, and (b) is involved in the joint creation of public value over time.
A collaborative platform is an organization or program with dedicated competences and resources for facilitating the creation, adaptation and success of multiple or ongoing collaborative projects or networks (Ansell and Gash 2018: 20). In the context of Oregon, each of the 13 collaborative platforms creates a network of state-connected collaboratives that operate in the same policy field and work toward the same (or very similar) ends. Through the platform, the state is able to scale collaborative efforts both up and out, fostering the coordination of information and resources to improve and advance both their individual and collective collaborative efforts.
Oregon has other collaboratives and collaborative platforms that do critical work and should be added to future iterations of the Atlas, including for example, Oregon Solutions and Oregon Consensus at the National Policy Consensus Center.
What’s in the atlas Right now?
The Atlas contains a wealth of information, including:
Web-based data on 236 collaboratives, including physical geography (a spatial map of where each collaborative works), social geography (who participates), and collaborative characteristics (structural information about the collaboratives).
Focus group data about how the State of Oregon helps and hinders its collaboratives, and when collaboratives succeed and struggle. This information was collected via five focus groups around the state with a sample of leaders who (a) sit on 2+ collaboratives, and (b) the state agency staff and technical service providers who support the 13 collaborative platforms.
A literature review on the origins and evolution of the 13 collaborative platforms in the state.
Types of information included about each collaborative include its physical location, purpose, number of participants, date established, legal status, staffing, frequency of meetings, and primary funding sources.
As of June 2019, the Oregon Volume of the Atlas includes information on 236 state-connected collaboratives engaged in one of 13 collaborative platforms operating across 5 policy areas, including natural resources, economic development, public safety, education, and human health (see table below).
More than 2,500 people and 2,000 organizations participate in these collaboratives. Oregon’s 13 collaborative platforms tend to be sponsored by a central entity (e.g., a state agency), and are supported by a number of other entities (e.g., technical assistance providers, funders, etc.).
Policy Area
Collaborative Platform (# of collaboratives)