And indeed, some of those successes dot our community landscape. All too frequently though, when I visit with those participating in community collaboratives, I find efforts that have not found their footing and individuals sharing varying degrees of frustration, disillusionment, disappointment, and anger at the lack of progress. Related efforts in the same community often share the same traits. Digging deeper uncovers more dysfunction. Unaddressed racial, cultural, gender, and class issues palpably beat just below the surface, hampering honest interaction and collaboration.
Members dicker over programmatic options, none of which reflect good science or best practice.
Public institutions act as if the collaboratives are not there and remain impermeable to change. And in oxymoronic displays, competing collaboratives vie with each other for seemingly limited resources. Perhaps most amazing, the diehards continue to attend, some to protect their turf but others finding hope in the very fact that they are still meeting. Policy analysts, advocates, elected officials, and funders look at this all too common picture and wonder whether this purported paradigm shift only works in theory but not in practice. That is the crossroads I believe we are at.