Lower San Antonio Collaborative
May 12, 2004
2:00-5:00pm
La Clinica de La Raza
Next Meeting:
Wednesday June 9th – 3:30-5:00pm
Decisions/Agreements:
Next steps:
Upcoming Events:
There will be a Results-Based Accountability training with Mark Friedman on May 18th from 8:30am to 4:30pm at La Clinica.
*This meeting was divided in two, the first part ( 2:00-3:30pm ) was spent on the history of the LSAC for information for La Clinica and in discussion about the connections between the Promotoras project and the Early Childhood Education work of the LSAC. The second was the health work group meeting. Not all attendees were present at both meetings.
Attendees: Samantha Blackburn, Fred Blackwell, Sandra Chapin, Anna Dorman, Tamar Fendel, Kerry Forbord, Kristen Graser, Mara Guccione, Jennie Mollica, Joy Ramos, Junious Williams
Overview of Making Connections
Junious shared the history of Making Connections (MC), MC Oakland, LSAC and Urban Strategies role in MC. Kristen and Anna had questions for Junious about available data for the LSA neighborhood that would be helpful in their needs assessment. Junious described the cross-site survey of 700-800 residents that includes health related outcomes and is due in June. USC will send the survey instrument to Kristen and see if we have a chart with the topical areas from that survey. Kristen raised the idea of asset mapping and needing to know what resources sit around the LSAC table. Mara will talk to Jeremy, the new coordinator of the Oaktown Datahouse, about a database of agencies and a map of churches in the LSA neighborhood. Junious offered that USA can provide data collection and analysis within existing resources.
Promotoras Update
The steps that La Clinica has been considering are 1) Training first in Spanish, 2) collaboration with other agencies, 3) working with other linguistic groups. They are hoping to work with the LSAC for recruiting. They expressed a desire to do the needs assessment and work with the Promotoras to determine what the focus is for the project.
Promotoras Project and Early Childhood Education (ECE)
Jennie gave an overview of the early childhood education work that has been done so far in the Collaborative. USC will share the proposal for Early Childhood with the Health work group. There was recognition that both projects are in the early stages and there is room for working together. Several of these ideas were mentioned:
- School readiness – physical, social and emotional well-being
- Working with parents to develop their leadership and to do the training with the same people
- Promotoras could attend ECE coalition meetings
Anna shared their concern about sustainability and how we receive people who are interested in participating. Junious suggested training people with interest in being Promotoras who come out of the family literacy activities that the ECE group is planning. Another suggestion was narrowing the Promotoras project to include parents of children ages 0-5 years. This would help bring the resident engagement piece to the Collaborative. The Cultural Center that is being planned could be the Hub for these activities. Oakland Ready To Learn offered to help. Another piece of work that could connect is the Small Grants program that is currently in development.
Anna said that they are trying to tap into all groups and resources that are currently working in the community and they’ll use the assessment to do this. Jennie suggested that they think about the resources that could come into the project if they decide focus on parents of children ages 0-5 years.
It was suggested that the other groups to communicate with about the promotoras project are Active Living be Design, the 23rd Avenue Corridor work group and the FES work group. We will also put the Promotoras project on the Planning Committee agenda.
Grant and TA Priorities
Fred came to talk to the group about the grant making strategies and TA priorities for MC Oakland. He shared the results and capacities list from which Casey prioritizes grant making and TA. He talked about the desire to have a priority list around grant making and to have residents involved in the process on a yearly basis.