Crafting Meaningful MOUs for Collaborative Governance

Collaborative governance happens in the real world. Over the years, The Greenlining Institute has partnered alongside verious community-based organizations and  drawn inspiration from our fellow practitioners who are innovating new collaborative governance practices in real time.

This includes:

  • The many neighborhoods implementing Transformative Climate Communities projects and testing out collaborative governance in California.
  • Upright Consulting, our partners in Towards Equitable Electric Mobility, a peer-to-peer community of practice.

In order to create a more just future, we must correct the current governance system that is built on extraction and exclusion, to instead be rooted in community ownership. Our communities must be centered in the decision-making processes that shape our lives and neighborhoods. This requires shifting traditional hierarchies and finding new ways to collaborate to achieve greater collective impact. When grounded by equity and community leadership, we can build power and strength through collaboration. We also acknowledge the challenges of collaboration–working in coalition can be really hard.

Description: In this interactive session, participants can create a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that outlines how a multi-stakeholder group will work together to advance a community vision or Community Land Trust and Affordable Housing. We suggest conducting this activity with a minimum of 4 participants. During the activity, we suggest discussing the following themes:

  • How do we stand up collaborative governance?
  • What are the ingredients that lead to equitable and impactful processes and outcomes?
  • How do we upend traditional hierarchies to be rooted in collaboration?

Running Time: 75 to 100 mins

Equity Lab Materials: MOU handout, MOU board, component cards, role cards, resource cards.