At the start of the pandemic, in an effort to take stock of its practices, Moisson Montréal looked to a new tool to assess the impacts of local intersectoral actions developed by the Canada Research Chair in Community Approaches and Health Inequality.

The free and interactive online tool is meant to help organizations working within a intersectoral partner network better understand, model and lead actions in response to a social need (e.g., organize an activity, draft a document, make representations, etc.) and evaluate the benefits.

Organizations like Moisson Montréal, citizen groups and members of public, private and scientific institutions that collaborate to improve the quality of life for everyone had spent over two decades seeking to more adequately document their collective actions and demonstrate the relevance and effectiveness of their interventions, especially to funding agencies. What tangible impacts do these local intersectoral action networks—a strategy aiming to transform living environments—have on people and communities?  

That question is at the core of the tool/site, which integrates data from 10 years of research led by two professors in the École de santé publique at Université de Montréal. Angèle Bilodeau and Louise Potvin, who is also the director of the Centre de recherche en santé publique, worked in partnership with the Coalition montréalaise des Tables de quartier (CMTQ) and the Montréal initiative to support local social development led by the city of Montréal, Centraide and the Direction régionale de santé publique.

Communagir and the Tamarack Institute, which are established partners in the community action sector, host the training and analysis platform. They also promote it within their networks and use it in their practices to support intersectoral action stakeholders.

The tool has been well received: since its launch in fall 2019, the French-language site was visited by 1,832 users and has over 8,400 page views. In light of the interest, the platform was also introduced into the ongoing training program for network action professionals.