Foundational Practices for Fostering Thriving Communities

In partnership, Community Initiatives and the Institute for People, Place, and Possibility (stewards of Community Commons) have been blessed over the last two decades to walk with and learn alongside community leaders and networks who are fostering conditions for thriving together. In each and every case, central to this work is building trusting relationships, reimagining what is possible, and mobilizing the collective will and moral courage to create positive change. The North Sound Region of Washington State, with North Sound Accountable Community of Health (ACH) serving as the backbone organization, embodies these foundational practices.

North Sound Accountable Community of Health

North Sound Accountable Community of Health was founded in 2015 to be a place where collaborative learning, planning, and decision-making could occur, crossing traditional jurisdictional boundaries and looking upstream to tackle issues that impact health, believing that people in the region are more connected than they are separate.

North Sound ACH was an early partner of the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) Medicaid Transformation Project, focused on improving health for people on Medicaid across the state. From the beginning, the work plans of North Sound ACH explicitly named relationships as essential to both their efforts and sustainability. The North Sound region of Washington State includes urban and rural areas, islands and mountains. More than one million people live in the region’s five counties: Island, San Juan, Snohomish, Skagit, and Whatcom — and eight Tribal nations.

North Sound Collaborative Action Network

To advance a thriving region for all, North Sound ACH launched a learning, advocacy, and action network in 2022. The Collaborative Action Network (the Network) is open to all community members and organizations seeking to advance a just and inclusive culture and the conditions required for all community members to thrive. Collectively network members provide assets, influence, and leadership for creating new legacies for living together.

	The Network includes over 200 organizations across many sectors, from clinical and social services to transformational justice, food systems, education, refugee and immigrant services, faith-based communities, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, animal welfare, and many more. Their work is rooted in a shared set of guiding principles and formative frameworks that have shaped their Network practices.

Network Practices Fostering Thriving Communities

North Sound ACH and the Network partners are generous in sharing their aspirations, stumbles, and stories of progress. They are part of a growing community of stewards (people and organizations) who are collaborating to create conditions that all people need to thrive, beginning with uplifting those who are struggling and suffering. Stewards understand that purpose must be larger than oneself and one’s organization. Power must be built and distributed with others, not consolidated. Wealth must be invested, not withheld, to create long-term value and address short-term needs.

North Sound ACH and the Network’s stewardship journey has been built using a number of practices, including;

Guiding Frameworks
Building Shared Language and Collective Capacities
Shaping a New Narrative
Participatory Budgeting
Multi-solving for Community Well-Being

1. Guiding Frameworks

Multiple frameworks guide North Sound ACH and the Network. As Liz Baxter, North Sound ACH CEO, shared in one of her monthly blog posts, “... separately each [framework] is critical, but when intertwined they are incredibly powerful.”

Honoring Tribal Sovereignty — The most critical component of being in relationship with tribal nations and tribal leaders is the ability of individuals and organizations to acknowledge, comprehend, and respect tribal sovereignty. Sovereignty is the fundamental recognition of the inherent right of the tribes to self-govern. North Sound ACH and Network partners have joined in an ongoing journey of tribal learning.

Advancing Equity — For North Sound ACH and the Network, advancing equity means just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. Specifically, health equity means everyone has a fair opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health, such as poverty and discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care.

Using Targeted Universalism — Targeted universalism means setting universal goals pursued by targeted processes to achieve those goals. Within a targeted universalism framework, universal goals are established for all groups concerned, and the strategies developed to achieve those goals are targeted, based upon how different groups are situated within structures, culture, and across geographies to obtain the universal goal.

Growing Well-Being through Vital Conditions — The Seven Vital Conditions for Well-Being is a useful framework for conceptualizing holistic well-being and the conditions that give rise to it, as well as identifying levers for community change and improvement. Vital conditions are properties of places and institutions that all people need to participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. We encounter them on day one and depend on them every day of our lives. They persist over generations. The seven vital conditions for well-being are: Basic Needs for Health & Safety, Lifelong Learning, Meaningful Work & Wealth, Humane Housing, Reliable Transportation, Thriving Natural World, and Belonging & Civic Muscle.

Centering Belonging — Belonging (and civic muscle) are one of the seven Vital Conditions for well-being. It sits at the center of the Vital Conditions Framework as it is both a vital condition unto itself and the vital condition necessary to animate and advance each of the other vital conditions. Belonging is more than just being seen or feeling included, belonging includes the power to co-create the structures that shape a community. As john powell states, “It is important that we are acknowledged as belonging and that we acknowledge the belonging of others. We all belong.”

Leading with Love — Leading with Love emphasizes relationship, belonging, connection, and trust in every interaction.

“Love is intentional, a choice we make, and it takes just as much work to embed as any best practice or new tool. We can lead with suspicion, or fear, or anger, or our own past experiences. And we can choose to lead with love even when those other emotions or experiences want to crowd out love. That is the opportunity we have within our network and within our own relationships.” - Liz Baxter in a blog post

2. Building Shared Language and Collective Capacities

Essential to mobilizing collective action is building a shared language and collective capacities. North Sound ACH has invested in shared learning and capacity building from the Network inception through monthly learning sessions, two annual convenings, skill building workshops, communities of practice, and other collaborative learning spaces. Network members participate in different ways, reflecting the unique journey each is on. Experiences are co-designed with partners, bringing together national best practices and local expertise and experience. The gathering places (virtual and in-person) aim to hold brave spaces that are sometimes inspiring and at other times really tough as they collectively challenge long held beliefs and support all voices in sharing their stories. This work strengthens the ability of the partners and their communities to move into meaningful collaboration.

3. Shaping a New Narrative

To create new legacies for living together, we must reimagine what is possible. Shaping a new narrative means actively creating a different story and perspective about a situation, person, or event. The willingness to explore the legacies we’ve inherited, shared through multiple lenses and voices, and experienced through dialogue and art are essential ingredients to co-creating a new future. North Sound ACH has invested in multiple strategies, including documentaries and artists in residence.

Children of the Setting Sun Productions (CSSP), a partner of North Sound ACH with common beliefs in the power of story and goals of furthering tribal learning, documented Coast Salish tribes’ approaches to wellness, health, resilience, cultural practices, and ways of life in support of the Network tribal learning journey and to contribute to shaping new narratives together.

In 2024, North Sound ACH started a new Artist in Residence initiative. Khemistry, a poet/artist, served as the first artist in residence with North Sound ACH. She worked with the team, partners, and community members to connect art with healing, resilience, and health. Read more as Liz shares her poem, written as part of an exercise that had team members each writing around the theme of “I am,” and then working in teams to make dreamcatchers.

4. Participatory Budgeting

North Sound ACH puts the community at the center of funding decisions for the Collaborative Action Network (the Network). A peer committee made up of Network members independently reviews and selects which programs and organizations will receive annual allotted investment through a proposal process. For 2025, the investment will be $3.5 million in funding. This Committee will assess submissions to determine how best to allocate available ACH funds and resources to align with regional priorities. A key goal of the Network is to empower partners to influence and shape the direction of regional efforts. Lessons from the first peer review committee have continued to shape this approach.

5. Multi-solving for Community Well-Being

Multisolving is the practice of designing solutions that simultaneously address multiple issues, creating a ripple of benefits across several systems and sectors. Unlike traditional approaches that often focus on single issues in isolation, multi-solving acknowledges the interconnected nature of our most pressing challenges. North Sound ACH and Network partners are building collaborative relationships that allow them to multisolve around priority issues in their communities for example:

The Way Station — is a program ensuring that hygiene and dignity are accessible to all community members. The Way Station offers crucial services, including medical care, showers, laundry, and connections to housing and behavioral health support. This initiative touches on several vital conditions for well-being, such as meeting basic needs for health and safety, supporting mental and physical health, and fostering social connectedness for those experiencing housing instability. Learn More
Paths to Understanding — is on a mission to bridge bias and build unity through multi-faith peacemaking. They believe each wisdom tradition provides us with strength, peace, and a sense of connection. Connecting with other wisdom traditions offers gifts that help us come together for the future of communities and the planet. The Potluck Project and Let’s Go Together are two initiatives building bridging skills and a sense of belonging that help us expand all other vital conditions.
Housing Hope — provides affordable housing, employment training, and child development programs to support families on their path to self-sufficiency. By addressing both immediate and long-term housing needs, Housing Hope exemplifies how stable housing fosters economic mobility and overall well-being. Learn more about Housing Hope and one of their newest communities — Twin Lakes Landing.

The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Its Parts

As we dare to reimagine new futures together and seek signals of possibility among the noise and distractions, North Sound ACH and their Network partners are a ray of light shining the way. They make visible what we can become when we center relationships and grow trust, begin with those struggling and suffering, and build and share power so that each of us, no matter our starting point, can lead thriving lives.

Learn More

To learn more explore the North Sound Resource Library — the Network knowledge and learning space created in collaboration with the North Sound ACH. Dive deeper through the featured resources below.