There are a lot of platforms which provide insightful and practical knowledge on organizing and further developing your citizen collective. How does CollectieveKracht differ from them? CollectieveKracht has the explicit ambition to facilitate knowledge exchange between citizen collectives themselves and relevant funders, scientists, network members and officials with the aim of perpetuating the resilience of citizen collectives.

We focus on all citizen collectives in the Netherlands and not exclusively on one sector or legal form, and want to enable a dialogue between, on the one hand, experiential knowledge coming from citizen collectives, funders, governments and network organisations with, on the other hand, valid scientific knowledge. The group strives to form a bridge between the daily practice of citizen collectives and the research questions of scientists. Not only by unlocking knowledge and insights from existing publications and making them applicable, but also by actively developing new evidence-based knowledge which is demand-driven and practice-oriented.

Scientists look at citizen collectives from different disciplines and diverse theoretical perspectives. A wide range of citizen collectives' challenges are thus addressed about which “evidence-based” knowledge has been built up or is in development. By offering scientists a platform, CollectieveKracht contributes in a special way to organising research more efficiently and effectively. Furthermore, the data obtained through CollectieveKracht are aggregated, pseudonymised and stored and processed with respect for strict ethical standards and privacy rules.

At the center of the platform stands the term reciprocity and a DIY-attitude. This is reinforced by a range of research tools that encourage evidence-based self-reflection and help make short- and long-term strategic choices. For example, with the Self-scan, which provides access to the website, citizen collectives acquire knowledge and insights about their development and functioning themselves. This allows them to anticipate any (future) obstacles that may hinder their resilient and sustainable development.