Charlotte Crossroads Collaboration
Crossroads Charlotte selected NPower Charlotte Region to create the program management and collaboration platform for its countywide expansion.
Challenge
Crossroads Charlotte selected NPower Charlotte Region to create the program management and collaboration platform for its countywide expansion. Crossroads Charlotte engages organization, institutions and individuals in dialogue to understand and intentionally work toward an equitable and inclusive future for the people of Charlotte.
Solution
NPower has developed a Microsoft SharePoint program management portal. This portal acts as the nucleus of file and information sharing across all organizations and individuals working with Crossroads. NPower is also advising Crossroads on the use of social media to take the dialogue to the public.
"Community Building Initiative (CBI) is thrilled to continue its partnership with NPower to enhance communications and programming tools for the Foundation For The Carolinas' Crossroads Charlotte project." Dianne English, Executive Director, Community Building Initiative.
Impact
The Crossroads portal uses hosted Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services version 3.0 to enable a group of geographically and organizationally distributed people to share documents, calendar, contact directory, project status information and image libraries. In the past, this information was "locked away" in the inboxes and local file storage of individual members of the collaborative. By utilizing the collaboration and document management features inherent in Sharepoint, Crossroads Charlotte is engaging more people in the expansion of dialogue on issues of inclusion and equity. In turn, the Charlotte region is beginning to widen the participation of community neighborhoods associations and individual citizens in the intentional shaping or the region's future as an inclusive community and great place to live, learn and work.
About the Nonprofit
Crossroads Charlotte is a special initiative of Foundation For The Carolinas and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, managed by the Community Building Initiative, to examine possible futures described in four scenarios and to provide opportunity for organizations, institutions and individuals to take action.
The Crossroads Charlotte scenarios were written in response to a core question: What course will Charlotte-Mecklenburg chart for all its residents over the next ten years as we deal with issues of access, equity, inclusion and trust in the social, political, economic and cultural life of the community? This question provided the basis for a look into the future based on values that are fundamental to the community's future vitality.
