| By Harry Hertz "The Baldrige Cheermudgeon" Communities across America have long struggled with systemic issues, such as education disparities, income inequality, access to health care, diversity and inclusion, and inequalities in economic opportunity. When these issues are addressed, they are generally addressed in silos without the benefit of a comprehensive framework for proactive intra-community collaboration. In 2013, Communities of Excellence 2026 was formed as a nonprofit organization with the purpose of helping communities work together using a Baldrige-based community-centric framework. The goal is to achieve communities of excellence across America by the 250th anniversary of our country in 2026. To date three learning collaboratives, involving 18 communities across the U.S., have been established. For most of the communities, their longer-term focus has been interrupted as they deal with the current pandemic. Many of these communities started better prepared because of the cross-sector relationships they had already developed. The current challenges led them to new insights on achieving community excellence. I want to share some of those insights for your local communities to consider, so that all communities may benefit from the efforts of these pioneering eighteen.
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