Tamarackcci.ca allows its members to customize their learning in ways that:

• Provides a variety of different learning options and learning styles
• Encourages members to contribute to the learning of others
• Facilitates the ability to exchange ideas and perspectives with other learners in this field
• Enables members to join others in building - and deepening - our collective body of knowledge about community engagement, collaboration and change

On this page you'll find:

• Quick Tips to Customize Your Learning
• Fields of Study
• Finding the Content You Need Now
• Going Deeper

Quick Tips for Customizing Your Learning

One of the most exceptional elements of this site is the ability it provides you to connect with others about community collaboration, leadership, innovation and change.

On this site you'll have the ability to discuss ideas; pose and respond to questions about the work of community collaboration; and, find others whose work mirrors your own.  You'll also discover new ideas and find resources to support you as you work to bring about positive community change; be encouraged to share your own insights and tools; and, be offered opportunities to engage with thought-leaders and innovators within the field of community collaboration and change.

To make the most of the Communities Collaborating Institute Online site, take full advantage of the exclusive access you'll have to:

1. Register for events. We offer tele-learning sessions, training opportunities, peer and in-person learning events on a range of topics fundamental to the work of community collaboration and change.
2. Create a personal profiles and link with other community members based on topics of shared interest; or meet members of your own community - who may be working on related issues through their profiles.
3. Communicate your thoughts, ideas and questions in blog posts. And comment on others' posts to continue a conversation on a shared topic of interest
4. Submit publications to build the community library.
5. Subscribe to posts based on areas of interest so that you can be part of unfolding discussions relevant to your work.  Share your favourite links and publications with the community.
6. Join with others as learning buddies or create study circles to more deeply explore questions about community.

You can customize this site to suit your preferred learning style.  If you are:

• A Visual Learner - check out our library to find a range of articles and other resources you can read within a range of relevant topic areas
• An Auditory Learner - our podcasts and audio seminars let you listen to a wealth of information and insights organized on a range of key topic areas
• A Kinaesthetic Learner - posting a blog to share your thoughts, ideas and questions may be the best way to crystallize your own learning - as well as generate an insight for another community member.  Or, you could attend one of the many face-to-face learning event developed for members of the CCI Online learning community

Fields of of Study

This site focuses on three core fields of study. They are:

• Community Engagement - People working collaboratively, through inspired action and learning, drawing strength from each other and from the diversity of their perspectives to create and realize bold visions for their common future
• Collaborative Leadership - In these complex times, the quality of engagement influences the quality of our decisions and ultimately, our outcomes
• Community Innovation for Social Impact - The aim of social innovation is to address our most pressing and complex social problems. Its fundamental premise is that "the thinking that got us into complex social challenges is not the thinking that will get us out."

While each of these fields offers a rich source of learning and exploration in its own right, we are also intrigued by what is made possible through the dynamic inter-play between these three fields and the synergies that are created when they are utilized together.

Finding the Content You Need Now

Learning is often most effective and constructive when it is timely and relevant to the current issues at hand. We have learned that community collaborations face different issues and therefore require different skills, structures and resources at different stages of their maturity. For this reason, we have intentionally organized some of the learning resources on this site according to what we have come to identify as the typical phases these initiatives go through.

You will also discover some topic areas that are universally applicable to community collaborations at any stage of development. And, please keep in mind that some people find it valuable to learn about "what's likely to come next" because it helps them to anticipate, and prepare for the future. Still others have found that learning more about a stage that their collaboration has just come through is useful in supporting their own reflection process.

Whatever your particular learning needs, the site's various topic areas, tags and search function are all designed to help you to quickly and easily access the information that you need.

Going Deeper

It has often been said, "If you want to learn...teach." In this same spirit, our site's member blogs invite you to teach others about what you are learning. This, together with the site's features that provide opportunities to capture individual reflections; engage in dialogues; share questions and insights; and, observe the richness and diversity of this online community's collective experience provides an ideal forum to facilitate the emergence of patterns and themes and make them more recognizable.