Communities of Excellence 2026

A Systematic Approach to Excellence in Communities: Using a Baldrige-based Framework to Lead Transformation

What challenges does your community face?

What are the most important opportunities to improve the overall health and well-being of the people in your community?

Are all key stakeholders—residents, businesses, educational institutions, health care providers, government agencies, and nonprofits—working together to develop shared strategies and action plans to solve the most important challenges?

And if your community were a business or a nonprofit organization, would it be considered high performing, merely average, or fighting for its very survival?

About Communities of Excellence

Communities of Excellence 2026 (COE2026) was founded in 2010 and incorporated in 2013 as a national, independent nonprofit to advance the common good by providing a roadmap to sustainable community performance excellence. The roadmap allows communities to face their challenges with a proven course of action, while demanding high performance and a commitment to achieve desired outcomes.

COE2026 and the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program believe that the systems approach to leadership, management, and continuous improvement found in the Baldrige Excellence Framework can be adapted to achieve performance excellence in communities. COE2026 supports and recognizes communities as they work together to systematically identify, implement, and sustain improvements that enrich the opportunities, health, and well-being of their people.

Collaboration

The Baldrige Program and COE2026 collaborate in these areas:

• Adapt the Baldrige Framework to develop a Community Performance Excellence Framework
• Educate individuals and organizations on the framework
• Encourage community assessments against the framework
• Share best practices identified through assessments

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Visit Communities of Excellence 2026 to learn how your community can achieve and sustain the highest quality of life for its people.
 

Communities of Excellence Fall Conference
Lighting the Way to Excellence

Friday, October 21, 2022  |  Hard Rock Hotel, San Diego, CA

Join us in San Diego, CA, on Friday, October 21st, for our 2022 Annual Conference! This conference is for anyone interested in forming a community excellence group and learning how to apply the Baldrige-based Communities of Excellence Framework to the improve economic vitality, educational attainment, health outcomes and quality of life in their community. Formal and informal leaders from all sectors of a community will find value in this conference.

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