Tamarack believes that the way we work is as important as what we are working on. We also recognize that we, and many of our partners, work like an organization, but we think like a movement. That’s why, in 2006, we’re focusing our efforts on learning more about movements for change, specifically movements that are born in a local context but grow to become national or international social change efforts.

Thinking like a movement necessitates the consideration of the complexities of systemic change including an exploration of sustaining social innovation and the role of leadership.

Al Etmanski and Vickie Cammack are prime Canadian examples of social innovators and movement leaders. We spoke with them about what it means to “think like a movement.”

On this page you'll find:

Vickie Cammack and Al Etmanski

Vickie Cammack is the Executive Director of the PLAN Institute. Vickie is someone who finds and implements innovative solutions in the social sector. She is a recognized Canadian source of inspiration, innovative ideas and demonstrable solutions related to community, citizenship and disability.

Vickie is a co-founder of PLAN and co-author of Safe and Secure - Six Steps to Creating a Personal Future Plan for People with Disabilities. As a past college instructor at Douglas College in New Westminster she designed a curriculum process for the preparation of caregivers that is being used in colleges and universities throughout British Columbia and is the founding Director of the Family Support Institute of British Columbia. She is currently focused on the development, dissemination and application of ideas, concepts and processes that promote a more engaged and caring citizenship. Her innovative approaches to leadership development, social network facilitation and social accounting are key ingredients in her work of taking social inventions to scale.

Al Etmanski is the President of PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network) and has been a leading advocate for people with disabilities and their families in Canada for more than two decades. He is widely recognized as a visionary thinker in areas of social policy, community development and individualizing services for people with disabilities.

Al is an author, advocacy consultant and social inventor who specializes in finding innovative, non-governmental solutions to social problems.

In recent years, Al has become known for his expertise in fostering social enterprise within the civic sector, converting social capital to economic capital, the innovative use of non- profit, profit and public sectors as problem solving partners and creating alternatives to legal guardianship.

He is the author of A Good Life – For You and Your Relative with a Disability and Safe and Secure – Six Steps to Creating a Personal Future Plan for People with Disabilities.

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“Thinking like a Movement”

PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network) was formed to answer the question all parents of someone with a disability ask: “What will happen to my relative when I’m not there?” The co-founders quickly realized there’s a deeper answer to that question; the worry is not necessarily about what will happen but about who will be there. And so, PLAN has worked to create social networks, to advocate for those with disabilities and their families and to push for policy and regulatory reform work that will help families to secure their relative’s future.

PLAN is now being replicated in over 40 sites around world. There’s a lot of interest in PLAN for a number of reasons:

While Al and Vickie’s work is governed by their day-to-day work with families, they also know that just doing the work isn’t going to change the policy apparatus or cultural consciousness around people with disabilities. So while PLAN is a touchstone and template, a place of inspiration, Al and Vickie have increasingly been thinking and working at sustaining social innovation.

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A Sustainability Methodology

Al and Vickie’s work is guided by a four-fold sustainability methodology:

What does “Thinking Like a Movement” mean?

Thinking Like a Movement is a concept that calls us to think beyond our organization and the day-to-day operations of running an organization to a much larger vision.

Initially, Al and Vickie shared, they focused on replicating PLAN but the work required to really address the needs of people with disabilities requires more than replication.

We often assume that the good work of the organization we work with will change the world. But working that way won’t fulfill the larger challenge, it won’t get to the heart of the matter. Instead, we must act in an intentional, conscious, strategic and systemic way to bring about:

Sustainability is about more than ensuring the viability of an organization. The key components to social innovation and long-term sustainability are:

Working like this requires a long-term vision and it’s important to realize that it will take a long time to get where you want to be. But the consequence of not working this way is continued piece-meal approaches and little effect on the roots of the issue you are attempting to address. That’s where thinking like a movement comes into this – move beyond individual responses and individual organizations to the root of the issue and addressing systemic change.

The question of sustainability and social innovation is really the question of our generation. There are many great examples of innovative solutions; the challenge is taking those innovations to scale.

When we think like an organization, we use a few levers to move forward. When we think like a movement we use far more levers; in fact, we use as many as we can to move forward. The more we do this, the more we realize how many levers there are to move the issue forward.

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Movement Patterns

Good Communication and Distribution – For example, the Blue Box exists in every community in our country. This reflects a pattern of good communication and distribution. Someone realized if they painted a box blue and made it easy to access, people would use it. They made the concept simple to grasp and understand.

Convening – Need to reach out beyond our own sector and spheres of influence. Examples of convening in action include the Toronto City Summit Alliance and Vibrant Communities. Each represent a conscious effort to bring people to the table and create a process so people can come together to focus on what they share rather than how they differ.

Utilizing market forces – It’s important to understand the economic and social assets of our constituency. Doing so allows us to access capital resources. It can be difficult to see the economic assets of your constituency, but consider their collective assets. For instance, within the disability community financial analysts estimate that $40 billion worth of life insurance policies and trusts will be established over next 10-15 years and $240 million in contributions to disabilities savings plan will be made by families. Having this kind of information at hand also pulls along policy issues, but through the doorway of market forces which makes your arguments and advocacy even more powerful.

Operate at different levels – The Slow Movement is a great example of this. On the surface, the Slow Food Movement is about pleasure and enjoying food, but behind that is a deeply analytical, strategic, intentional challenge to fast food, and the commodification and industrialization of food. The movement operates at multiple levels with multiple actions.

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Leadership and Movements

PLAN is hosting a three-day seminar for leaders within the disability movement on Thinking Like a Movement. Leadership is a critical component in any movement. Al and Vickie suggest there are three core issues for movement leaders to consider:

Movement Challenges and Questions

We asked Vickie and Al to name some of the challenges they see in doing this work and the questions they have about movements for change.

Vickie named the involvement of the younger generation as a key concern. It’s important to find ways to make this work, which can sometimes be deeply theoretical, engaging.

An additional challenge is ensuring we have the capacity to continuously innovate. Finding funding for this work can be difficult. The work is complex and exploratory so a typical approach to seeking funding will not work. Supporters are required who are willing to invest in the long-term and who understand failure can be a good thing sometimes because it allows us to learn.

Al raised the importance of marrying social and economic justice. Economic justice is just as important in the development of a good life for our constituency as social justice. Do not assume social justice includes economic justice.

Working multisectorally continues to be a challenge. When we think about networks, we often think about our own networks (same sector and field), but it is also important to leverage contacts and social capital across disciplines and sector. Be conscious of creating networks horizontally. It will always be easier to speak with people in the same sector. The issues we are trying to address require a response from every sector within society and so it’s necessary to find a way to engage each sector, no matter how hard that work might be.

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Additional material and Learning Resources

The PLAN Family:

The Disability Savings Plan

The proposed registered disability savings plan is an idea put forward by the Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN). The registered disability savings plan (RDSP) is a way to help families improve the quality of life of their relative with a disability and to ensure the financial security of their relative over the longer term. The RDSP would operate as a tax-assisted savings plan in much the same way as a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP).

Learn more about PLAN’s public policy initiatives on their website here. Click here to access Thinking Like a Movement: Selected Readings from PLAN.

Check out Tamarack’s Movements for Change section! Learn more about:

Additional Links & Resources

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