Professional Documents
Culture Documents
table of contents
Background Introduction Inviting Others to the Table Agreeing on Desired Outcomes Deciding on which Actions to take Measuring Success Collecting and Applying Data Strategic Community Action plan Lessons Learned POssible Funding sources Resources and References Glossary Thank Yous
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background
As California begins the climb out of the longest recession since the Great Depression, now is the optimal time to rethink the way local services are delivered and rebuild our local public service infrastructure in a way that is smarter and more focused on results. In our current economic recovery mode, it is time to look at a new way of doing business. Years of budget cuts have stripped scores of public service programs down to bare bones, and many government agencies have found through necessity that collaborating with other agencies and community-based organizations can be a way to stretch funds. A carefully crafted, comprehensive strategic plan that lays the framework for government agencies and community-based organizations to work together across sectors toward common goals will both increase efficiencies and improve results. In the long-term, this kind of collaboration will create a magnified collective impact and return value for the people who finance most of these services: the taxpayers. Understandably, comprehensive strategic plan for a region or county is a massive, complex task, both administratively and politically. Even with careful adherence to a strong collaboration model and experienced staff to guide the process, the effort can still be outsized and oversold. With numerous agencies and agendas in the mix, the effort can fall of its own weight. When this happens, the participants and public turn cynical and feel that their time has been wasted on governments false promises. So should we give up? Absolutely not! We have a strong model for collaboration that can be adapted to the size and scale of your community planning effort. You can successfully use the model to tackle the priority manageable issues on a micro scale, and as you achieve success and achieve momentum, you may address macro issues. Ultimately, you may use the model to craft a comprehensive strategic plan.
introduction
Ready to bring your community leadership together to forge new solutions to shared challenges?
This Handbook walks you through the fundamentals that must be executed to successfully complete and implement a collaboration to support your community planning effort. Here, you will find best practices for any sized collaboration effort collaborations within a single community, collaborations involving a few agencies, or huge onesdistilled into an easy-to-read and easy-to-use reference document. The purpose of the Handbook is to serve as a usable reference to assist Californians in creating successful community strategic planning efforts. The Handbook includes advice for you on:
We have a strong model for collaboration that can be adapted to the size and scale of your community planning effort.
Inviting others to the table and carefully planning your meetings Deciding on actions to take Measuring success Collecting and applying data to help evaluate the success of your effort Creating a comprehensive Strategic Community Action Plan Learning from mistakes along the way Finding funding for your project Understanding the terminology in the field
The Handbook is informed by the work of many collaborations and efforts, from anecdotes shared with us by diverse practitioners of collaborative planning to scholarly articles, books and toolkits. Throughout the text, you will find first-hand narratives of actual examples, contributed by respected practitioners in our state. Information about, and hyperlinks to, a rich assortment of articles and books that we used as sources are available in the Resources and References section. This Handbook is a work in progress, by no means set in stone. We hope that the Handbook is useful to you and your efforts, and we welcome your recommendations for changes or additions at any time.
Share your recommendations for changes or additions with us at any time by sending an e-mail to Teresa Acosta at teresa@cafwd.org.
As you reflect on your experiences with community collaboration, please feel free to offer your suggestions and share your examples with us. E-mail Teresa Acosta at teresa@cafwd.org.
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a strong vision that includes diverse perspectives, partnerships that share resources and expertise, and ownership of the plan that will foster long-term support by various facets of the community. To ensure meaningful engagement, you will need to interact with your stakeholders on a number of levels, such as those displayed in the Participation Ladder to the right. Many groups have found success using a Joint Planning approach with stakeholders and an Information-Feedback approach with the general public.
Participation Ladder
Resolution/ Prevention
Mediation
Joint Planning
Consultation
Information Feedback
Education
Government Leaders, including: City mayors, council members and staff County supervisors and county administrators Special district officials (e.g., water, sanitation), board members and staff School district officials (K-12 and higher education), board members and staff State legislators, state agency representatives Federal legislators, federal agency representatives
Source: Connor, D.
Community Leaders, including: Leaders of community-based organizations Business leaders Parent leaders (e.g., on the board of the PTA) Leaders of worker groups Health care leaders Faith community leaders Community activists
How can we lay out the facts about what our community needs?
Before your first meeting, you will need to gather data to help the stakeholder group understand the context in which your community planning effort is taking place. A recent, thorough community assessment would be ideal, if you have one. Some environmental data you may bring to the meeting include: Inventory of resources and assets, including local government budgets and financial reports Current community report cards Information about the local economy Research on the cultural and political landscape Demographic data by geographic area, such as census data
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Sharing this data at the meeting will help the group identify strengths and assets (human, physical, and economic) of the community, as well as needs. While you may have done a SWOT Analysis in the past, it is important to take current stock in a group setting of your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Together, your group should identify:
In order to make sure that many opinions and perspectives are heard, it is helpful to discuss each issue area with the entire group (preferably in sub-groups) and make decisions based on general consensus, or the vote of the vast majority. At a minimum, you need a majority vote to make a decision.
Strengths: characteristics of the community that give it an advantage over others Weaknesses: characteristics that place the community at a disadvantage relative to others Opportunities: external elements that the community could use to its advantage Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the community
When assembling a stakeholder list to participate, dont think narrowly. It is important to have voices who may not have an obvious stake in the issue involved. The City of Ventura, for example, appointed a broad range of leaders and activists to review its Disability Access plan. Not only were disabled members of the community and their advocates consulted, but business and civic representatives were enlisted to serve whod never been involved in the disability issue. This ensured not only a broader set of perspectives in reviewing the plan, it avoided unpleasant surprises when the plan went before the City Council because the broad outreach made a much larger cross-section of the community aware of the issues and trade-offs involved. Be alert as well that having stakeholder representatives at the table doesnt in any way ensure the larger groups they are drawn from will support the outcomeor even the process. It is critical that stakeholder representatives (and the broader process) reach out beyond those directly involved throughout the process to ensure broader understanding during the process if broader buy-in at the end of the process is a goal. Having one of each stakeholder community sit at the table is no guarantee the broader stakeholder communities will feel they were consulted or their views heard. Beware tokenism and the patronizing assumption that stakeholder groups are homogenous. Sometimes the fiercest disagreements arent between different stakeholder representatives but between members of the same stakeholder community who dont see eye to eyewhether from personal history, differing opinions or simply resentment about being represented by someone else. Above all, stress that the goal is the common good not just a compromise between diverse interest groups. The focus should be on effectively addressing the issue together, not finding the lowest common denominator. Too often a solution that involved parties can all live with wont get to the heart of solving a problem. In fact, if everyone involved is too close to the existing issue, they may have a hard time even agreeing on what the problem is in the first place. Disinterested participants bring fresh perspective and remind existing stakeholders that the task is not satisfying the groupits coming up a plan that will work better than the status quo. 5 6
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Beginning with the end in mind will help your group frame the challenges and problems you wish to address and define the core focus of the effort. Working backward from the goals also will help the group set milestones and take action. It is best to select a minimum of three issues around which to deliberate. Having several issues on the table attracts more discussion and prevents the kind of hard-core debate that leads to intractable opposition.
What is the difference between our vision and our desired outcomes?
Your shared vision describes your collective list of desired outcomes. In simple terms, it is where the group wants to go and what the group wants to accomplish. For example, California Forward has put forth a vision characterized by three Es: 1. Prosperous Economy 2. Quality Environment 3. Community Equity Through a statewide civic engagement effort lasting more than a year, California Forward came up with five suggested outcomes: 1. Increased Employment 2. Improved Education 3. Decreased Poverty 4. Decreased Crime 5. Improved Health The specific goals you choose support your vision and the outcomes you desire. Developing clear goals for your community will help the group set genuine priorities.
Specific target a specific area for improvement Measurable quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress Assignable specify who will do it Realistic state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources Time-related specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
Source: Doran, 1981.
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Assumptions
Problem or Issue
Community Needs/Assets
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The Community Schools collaboration in Pasadena has evolved from a set of regular meetings between the city manager, superintendent, mayor and board president into a focus on further institutionalizing the connection between the city and schools. Several community meetings focusing on City/District collaboration have honed the focus of this effort. Both city and district staff along with parents participated in a planning and sustainability conference by the National Center for Community Schools. That led to a large scale planning process between the city and district staff to develop a joint city/schools work plan based on the Results Framework from the Coalition for Community Schools: www.communityschools.org/ assets/1/AssetManager/CS_Results_Framework.pdf. There have already been a number of increasingly significant collaborations between the city health, human services, police and others city departments and the school district seeking to better align delivery of services with the needs of school families. The city/ schools work plan has been refined through numerous stakeholder meetings gathering input from groups including the local business community, non profit leadership, parents, students, community members and faith leaders. The revised work plan will be presented to a joint meeting of the School Board and City Council on February, 19 2013. The multi year plan that is projected to be adopted at that meeting will form the framework of collaborative efforts in aligning community resources to strengthen families and neighborhoods and increase student achievement. The plan can be found on the City of Pasadena Human Services web site at http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/ Department.aspx?theme=Olive&pageid=6442467543. In addition, through the efforts of grass roots advocacy organizations such as invest in PUSD Kids (www.iipk.org) there has been a push for the addition of an eighth guiding principal in the city general plan that states A vibrant public education system is valued and supported as the shared responsibility of our community. The city general plan update process should conclude by the end of 2012. City / School collaboration is being tangibly demonstrated in a series of joint use groundbreakings and openings of new facilities that include two new jointly funded school gyms and new Healthy Start Family Center school based health clinics. http://healthy-start.madison.pasadenausd.org
Below are some questions you might ask to determine whether a lawyer would be helpful to you in your collaboration. Remember that a lawyer is a resource, but does not always have all the answers. It is up to you to determine the role of the lawyer as best suits your needs. What is the applicable law? If you are in front of a school board, does the issue involve the State Education Code or the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act? If you are in front of a county board of supervisors or a city council, are there local, state or federal laws that you must understand in order to make your case? The lawyer can help you understand the legal framework for the issues you are confronting. What is the process? A lawyer can help you identify and understand any procedural issues that must be followed to make your case. Many public entities have rules and procedures that must be followed in order to raise an issue or to appeal a ruling. Oftentimes, your recourse is legal action that will require the assistance of a lawyer, but may also require you to exhaust other possible remedies before you run to court. A lawyer can help you sort through these issues and avoid any problems or pitfalls. What resources are available? A lawyer can help you use get useful information through legal means. The California Public Records Act provides a means to get access to public records and other documents that are useful in your cause. The Brown Act requires city councils and other public entities to deliberate in the open and can be a useful tool for citizens. A lawyer can help you employ these resources effectively in your strategic planning. What are the roles and responsibilities among the partners? After you have identified your partners and have set your goals and objectives, who is responsible to accomplish those goals and how is the work to be divided? Agreements among the parties or memorandum of understanding may be necessary, especially where the partners involve participating organizations or corporate entities. Do you need to incorporate? If you are soliciting donations or accepting funds from a public agency or foundation, you may need to consult with a lawyer to determine whether you should incorporate. A lawyer can help you decide whether to incorporate and what is the appropriate form of incorporation for your organization. They can also help you determine whether your organization would qualify as non-profit for tax purposes. Are there other legal issues that you should know about? A lawyer can help you identify any other issues that you need to be aware of in your action plan. If you are engaged in advocacy, what are the rules regarding lobbying and when are you required to register as a lobbyist? If fundraising, are there state, local or federal rules or regulations governing your fundraising activity?
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In the early 2000s it appeared inevitable to many Santa Cruz County justice stakeholders that a new jail would need to be constructed due to an overcrowded facility. The probation department, as a member of Jail Crowding Task force recommended a number of strategies to reduce unnecessary jail days. A national review led to an enhanced pretrial release program utilizing validated assessments to determine who could be released to make court appearances without reoffending during the court process of determining guilt. Another strategy was determined after the collection and analysis of probation data. The probation case management system and jail data revealed that there were probationers who would be jailed for an average of 40 days after returning on a bench warrant issued for failing to report to probation. The probation office would frequently not have current addresses to remind them on their reporting responsibilities that is delineated in small font on the back of their court sentencing order, or probationers did not respond to letters warning them of the consequences of not reporting. Given the high probation caseloads and numerous other tasks, there simply wasnt the time or resources to find probationers. While failing to report to probation is a clear violation of the rules, tremendous expense is spent on the arrest, litigation, and jailing of these individuals who are in trouble for violating rules, not crimes. The data and analysis of this problem led to the proposed solution to partner with a local non-profit, Friends Outside, with an initial budget of $35,000 to help locate and reconnect probationers who are not reporting to their probation officers. The result has been tremendous. There has been a 63% decrease in warrants and an increase in probation engagement and success. Each averted warrant means an average of 40 days of jail at over $80 dollars a day has been avoided. It also means that a swift and corrective action has been taken to reconnect and engage probationers to their probation officers. Finally, the Sheriff has not had to build his way out of the jail crowding problem, the most costly solution of all. In the first five years of operation the Warrant Reduction Advocacy Program (WRAP) has saved over 15,000 jail days and 1.2 million dollars. WRAP just one example of many solutions that can be derived from data based systemic interventions. The process is simple: 1. Identify the problem (jail crowding) 2. Use a combination of aggregate and qualitative data (data triangulation) to fully understand what is going on and determine baselines to measure change (40 days jail is spent for each person returning on a warrant). 3. Identify a solution and hypothesis (Friends Outside will reduce warrants) 4. Test the solution by collecting data after the systemic intervention (67% reduction in warrants). 5. Repeat process and start over if the tested solution disproves hypothesis. Cumulatively, the WRAP and other programs successfully reduced the jail population by 25% and a new jail was not needed.
measuring success
You have described your vision, listed your desired outcomes, and agreed on clear goals. You have linked these to specific activities and expected outputs. Now, review your goals and identify what will constitute success in reaching them. Measuring success is important for two main reasons: 1. To demonstrate progress toward goals 2. To challenge the group to commit to success, which may mean modifying activities according to the results
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lessons learned
As data is collected and analyzed, it is important to catalog the lessons learned, the specific positive takeaways and constructive criticisms gained from conducting specific activities. Each lesson learned provides concrete data to support a statement of:
Something learned from experience, An adverse experience that is captured and shared to avoid a recurrence, An innovative approach that is captured and shared to promote repeat application,
A specific entity should be given the responsibility of evaluating the effectiveness of the overall plan, an activity that includes documenting the lessons learned. Periodic, or even frequent, evaluation should be built into the plan so that activities can be regularly modified and adjusted to better achieve goals and desired outcomes.
Deciding on measurable community goals directed at solving the identified problem(s) Establishing a clear understanding of the outcome that that will be reached in solving the
problem(s)
or the knowledge acquired from an innovation or an adverse experience that leads to a process improvement.
Agreeing on the problem the community is trying to solve Identifying the current services available and focusing those on the client Figuring out the best ways to integrate services in a site-based delivery system
Ultimately, your Action Plan should:
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Clearly define the problem to be solved Outline the goals to be achieved and the metrics to be used to measure progress toward those goals Describe the public services that will be delivered Articulate the roles and responsibilities of the participating entities Identify specific state regulatory or statutory barriers to accomplishing the goals, if any, and develop an alternative that would be more effective at improving results. (Note that it may be necessary to request legislative relief.)
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glossary
This Handbook uses a number of terms to describe collaboration and resource-sharing activities that may not be familiar to you. Key terms are defined briefly here, for your reference.
Collective impact initiatives: Long-term commitments by a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem. Their actions are supported by a shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, and ongoing communication, and are staffed by an independent backbone organization. (Kania, 2011) Key performance indicators, or indicators: Specific performance measures used to evaluate progress toward achieving a goal. Lessons learned: Useful project management information gained through experience that your organization should retain for future use and that can be relevant to other organizations. Depending on the lesson, it could be a valuable technique or an outcome that you wish to repeat or it could be an undesirable result you wish to avoid. (US Department of Commerce) Logic model: A systematic and visual way to present and share your understanding of the relationships among the resources you have to operate your program, the activities you plan, and the changes or results you hope to achieve. (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004) Stakeholder: A party with an interest or concern in the issue at hand. A stakeholder can be defined narrowly, such as a leader of a certain group, or broadly, such as a resident in a specific community. Strategic Community Action Plan: A strategic plan created through an open and transparent process by a group of local government agencies, organizations, and community leaders who collaborate to more efficiently and effectively deliver public services. A Strategic Community Action Plan sets goals, identifies strategies and programs to advance those goals, and assigns roles and responsibilities among partners. SWOT Analysis: A strategic planning method developed by Stanford Research International in the 1960s, used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses/Limitations, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. (Humphrey, 2005)
While not specifically mentioned in the Handbook, there are several other related terms and concepts that you may come across in your research. They include:
Integrated service delivery: The concept of coordinating the delivery of public services across government entities. Joint use: A term that refers to two or more entities sharing a public facility space, such as a school auditorium or field, or a civic center. Wraparound services: Community-based intervention services that emphasize the strengths of the child and family and includes the delivery of coordinated, highly individualized unconditional services to address needs and achieve positive outcomes in their lives. (Welfare and Institutions Code 18351(d))
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thank yous
This Handbook was made possible by the efforts of the many practitioners of collaborative community planning who have shared their best practices and lessons learned with us. Special thanks goes to the Leadership Council, staff, and consultants of California Forward and the dedicated members of the Advisory Group.
notes
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