Cense has worked extensively with networked organizations across Canada and internationally to provide expert advice, evaluation support, strategic planning, and training to leadership teams. Our work focuses on innovation — doing new things to solve meaningful problems and address health and social concerns — while creating positive impact.
Below are some of the examples of our work on projects we are proud to having been a part of and showcase the range of contributions we make to organizations.
Building a National Strategy for Spinal Cord Injury in Canada
Cense worked closely with Praxis Spinal Cord Institute to develop a national framework to guide the spinal cord injury (SCI) community in its organizing. Praxis is a natural convenor and strong advocate in SCI research and practice leadership and wanted to leverage its position in the community to facilitate a long-term vision and strategy for the work done across Canada. Cense conducted a series of consultations with SCI leaders across the research, practice, and policy contexts as well as those with lived experience to craft a strategic framework for building that shared vision.
The result was Being Bold: Toward a National Spinal Cord Injury Care, Health & Wellness Strategy Discussion Document & Consultation Report, part of an initiative that sought to focus and inspire the SCI community to explore ways to align their actions and efforts to achieve greater impact. After the initial strategic framework was developed, Cense led a series of conversations that turned into the a
The Framework for Care and Action mapped the work that Praxis and its partners were doing and set forth a course for building a national network-centred strategic plan for the SCI sector across the country. That strategy and the many consultations and demonstrations that Cense helped gather and organize, has informed Praxis and its partners since 2020.
- ACTIVITIES AND METHODS (Keywords): strategy development, surveys, interviews, video, knowledge translation, design thinking, co-design
Creating Space for Non-Profit Capacity and Learning: Foundation House’s Future
Foundation House is a unique space that connects some of Canada’s leading philanthropic organizations together both physically and through a partnership-focused collaborative network. By bringing together organizations under one roof, Foundation House allowed easy access, collaboration, and learning.
The organization’s model was based on sound theory from the science of networks, collaboration, and innovation. Yet, COVID-19 upended that model by forcing people out of physical spaces to home. The substantial changes in workforce dynamics, and the changing geographic, social, and working conditions prompted by COVID-19, led the leadership team at Foundation House to assess its model. With a building lease coming due in three years, it began to consider what a post-COVID model of collaboration, learning, and community could look like and how its physical space could be used in new ways to support that.
This is where Cense came in. Foundation House knew business as usual wasn’t an option; work patterns had already changed, and with over 40% staff turnover, the membership profile and needs of the house had, too. They wanted creative, innovative, and practical solutions that could energize their members, drawing on design thinking.
We engaged Foundation House and its members in a series of conversations (interviews, surveys, and consultations), workshops, and visioning activities to help them see how they could make the most of the assets (human, social, physical) they had to nurture a culture of place that reflected their values, needs, and aspirations, but might look and feel different than what they had before.
The result were a series of models, grounded in evidence and imagination, that were shared with the Foundation House community and used to foster policy and programming choices for how the space and the collaboration network would develop over the coming years.
- ACTIVITIES AND METHODS (Keywords): visioning, strategy development, surveys, interviews, visual thinking, knowledge translation, strategic foresight, service design, design thinking
Public Health Transitions and Innovation: Post-COVID Emergency Recovery Strategies
The operational, strategic, and personal disruptions created by COVID-19 on public health services can’t be overstated. While every public health unit was prepared for a pandemic of some sort, none of them — in Canada or globally — were ready for what the COVID-19 pandemic brought. Some of what came from this upheaval were opportunities to innovate, learn, and adapt out of lethargic, bureaucratic, or ineffective policies and practices. It also took an physical, social, and emotional toll on organizations from top to bottom.
As public health units emerged from the emergency response phase of the pandemic, they began to ask: how can we keep the best of what came from this experience while returning to our core operations in a manner that allows us to be effective, sustainable and to heal from what’s happened?
Cense worked with four Ontario public health units (Peel Public Health and Health Services, Durham Region Health Department, Algoma Public Health, and the Region of Waterloo Public Health ), each with distinctive challenges and needs, to support the post-emergency transition process. This included incorporating dialogue sessions (open forum events), needs assessments, evaluations, and progressive engagements to shape strategy and operational planning. We hosted sessions where staff at all levels, management, and senior leadership could speak to the psychosocial impact of the pandemic — including experiences of trauma, loss and grief, accomplishment, joy, to job satisfaction, frustration and confusion. Our experience in psychology and human systems enabled us to design and deliver human-centred, trauma-informed, and optimistic strategies tailored to the shared experiences and unique context for each of these public health units.
Working with senior leadership teams, Cense was able to support approaches that improved communication, integration of lessons learned, and design approaches to bring past programming back online within a new, post-emergency set of conditions.
ACTIVITIES AND METHODS (Keywords): After-action reviews, strategy development, surveys, open forums, interviews, visual thinking, knowledge translation, strategic foresight, organizational design, co-design, design thinking
Learning from Experience Through Evaluation for Environmental Education
How can we support women of all ages to have conversations that matter and lead to climate action? That question is what underpins climate innovator and advocate Project Neutral’s program Talk Climate to Me. This innovative program is designed to provide education, support, and tools to women so they can have, lead, and participate in climate awareness and action.
They wanted to build a learning and innovation framework as their program developed and better showcase the work they were doing (and the impact it was having with women). Cense created a detailed developmental evaluation strategy that allowed Project Neutral and the Talk Climate to Me team to capture lessons, examples, and track progress toward learning goals.
We also introduced and built a living history system to allow them to record and track the evolution of their program, the innovations they led, and match that with outcomes. Living history is part of Cense’s developmental evaluation specialty. The results of our work together with Project Neutral are captured in the quote below from Jake Miller:
There was so much wisdom in the final report Cameron presented us with. He’d done a fantastic job of meeting with all our team members but the report went far beyond just reflecting back to us what we had said and thought. New original insights and themes were uncovered and crucial thinking on the impact and future of our program was given to us.
What Cameron does at Cense is beyond evaluation. He doesn’t simply show you what you think your organization has done, he uncovers what you never realized you’d been doing and presents you with opportunities for growth, development and greater impact. – Jake Miller, Executive Director Project Neutral
ACTIVITIES AND METHODS (Keywords): developmental evaluation, surveys, interviews, ethnography, living history, knowledge translation, coaching, timelines, co-design
To see what we can bring to your organization, reach out and let’s talk. It’s amazing what can be done!