Community-systems partnerships
This session explored examples of communities and systems coming together to co-design community centered efforts. We explored strategies to build trust, cede power, and navigate conflict.
Our discussants included Octavia Shaw from the DC Child and Family Services Agency and Cherie Craft, Executive Director of Smart from the Start, one of the 11 Family Success Centers.
Family Success Centers in DC were seeded with $4 million from the Mayor's budget and are designed to connect families to prevention services, as well as food security/nutrition, employment resources, education support, childcare, and healthcare, including mental health. Family Success Centers are all sited in Wards 7 and 8, east of the Anacostia River, locations that were informed by social determinants of health, violence prevention priority areas, and child abuse or neglect reports. Each neighborhood has an established Community Advisory Council, which consists of residents and stakeholders in the community, which determine the services offered at the Family Success Centers.
Key Takeaways:
True power sharing between systems and communities means the system giving up any preconceived notion about the needs of the community and how organizations will go about meeting those needs;
Accountability measures developed together
Community leaders make up 50% of the Community Advisory Board, with an expectation that they decide what’s needed, not CFSA
Systems can play an important role in removing barriers for the community, including running interference with procurement rules, legal requirements, civil service requirements, etc.
Regular meetings to lift up barriers to implementation and brainstorm a path forward
CFSA recognizes they have the power to troubleshoot with their colleagues and lift up community concerns
Family leadership should be woven into the fabric of the organization at the board and staff levels, with opportunities to grow and enrich that leadership throughout.
The ED of the Center considers the family leaders to be her boss, not CFSA
Led by a woman of color who has experienced many of the same things as the residents
Leadership pipelines exist throughout, and leaders are well trained to assume their roles as board members and staff
It’s critical for families to understand the history of racism: to reinforce that where they find themselves is not their fault, but a result of continued institutional/systemic oppression.
So many families come without a clear understanding of their strengths and that the things they are struggling with are not of their own making.
Family Success Centers are fighting against the deficit base of the traditional social services model that blames families for the challenges they’re experiencing
They have to address the pervasive hopelessness for families and replace it with the idea that there is a “way out” that they can design together.
PASSCODE: u@Bq++h2
This virtual learning series for all YTFG members is taking place in September and October as a lead-in to the Fall YTFG meeting in Albuquerque. The series is designed to build off learnings related to "preventing systems involvement" from YTFG's Spring 2023 meeting and deepen our learnings around equity and well-being.
Learning Series Desired Outcomes:
To learn from innovative community leaders what it means to build true community-driven systems of care that support youth and family well-being
To understand more concretely what communities want and need to be in partnership with systems & to examine elements of successful partnerships
To explore how systems can approach community relationships to gain trust, build capacity, and promote greater investment in upstream approaches
To identify additional learning opportunities for YTFG members