We use the social change paradigm of collective impact, and within that paradigm, HCC functions as the agency's backbone. Our work is also heavily influenced by Creating the Future and their ideal of catalytic thinking. This means we support organizations, governments, and citizens in working together to solve complex social issues by bringing out the best in people within systems to achieve a shared positive future for all in our community.

We have come to discover, over the years, that this backbone role is complex because community issues come and go, and thus, the feel of the Coalition has changed accordingly. For example, HCC started as a prevention coalition.

As our collective work deepened, we searched for upstream causal factors, and thus, together, we have addressed poverty, elevated our role within food security, made pathways from volunteerism to paid employment, built networks of volunteers to support each other, sparked a jail diversion system in the adult population, and addressed factors to prevent a school to prison pipeline, and have strengthened behavioral supports with a broad band of Safe School Professionals as part of the school-based MTSS teams.