LSA Joint Committee Meeting with Frank Farrow
April 14, 2005
NEXT MEETING: Thursday May 12, 2005 - 12:00-2:00pm
Check in and Attendance
Jennie Mollica, Lao Family; Lynette Lee, EBALDC; Beth Leeson, AECF; Deb Montesinos, AECF; Junious Williams, USC; Brendan Leung, FES Coach; Lisa Prigozen, EBALDC; David Kakishiba, EBAYC; Don Davenport, SACDC; Karen Stevenson, Communications; Mara Guccione, USC; Bill Wong, Diarist; Elena Serrano, ESAA; Josh Damkos, Self Evaluation; Frank Farrow, AECF; Eric Cone, SACDC; Suzanne Takahara, ESAA; Jerry Henderson, EBALDC; Francell Haskins, ACPHD; Deborah Whittle, Self Evaluation
Announcements
- There will be a POW WOW this Saturday at Mills College
- Junious thanked everyone for putting together the Candidate Forum
- Frank thanked everyone for extending the time and for a good event with a coherent message.
Site Report Feedback
- Frank: Has everyone seen the investment plan? In terms of the site report, it was read by 5-6 people from the foundation with diverse expertise in certain areas. The aim was to give their best ideas on all of the work and to thank everyone for doing it.
- Frank: Overall the report represented a major step forward and the plan showed this well by being more specific about actions we want to take in 2005. It helped to give specificity around data (baselines, gaps) and what we hope to do over the next 5 years. Frank would like to find time to talk to the right people about specific questions related to the data. What the data allows is to say this is what we are trying to accomplish and what we’ll hold people accountable to.
- Frank had some questions and comments including:
- The importance of completing a picture of results in the next few months
- Showing priorities across the results; are there the resources to manage the work well? There can be credibility issues if you fall behind.
- FES – good work in this area. Moving from plan to action is the next step. Notion of the workforce pipeline into workforce industries. This is how we can generate the most jobs that have good benefits (health care, construction, more Oakland-specific opportunities). How can this become a piece of the FES strategy?
- Resident leadership and engagement needs to be more prevalent (real actions) and more concrete strategies needed.
- ECE – there was a mixed reaction to this piece. There are still lots of pieces to be put together. This is an area that really changes the futures of children and the pieces are poised to be brought together. It needs statements of “here is how we are going to reach X families as well as the immunization by birth, etc (the developmental pieces).
- How this all comes together. Can these strategies come together for the same families?
Response/Questions
- Jennie: ECE is still young. Some projects are focused on bringing more people into the work. Haas and Casey have encouraged us to think about broader policy issues. Many partners have never had involvement in the LSAC/MCO. It would help to have the opportunity to feed lessons learned into this work group.
- Don: Do inventory of what is here.
- Brendan: The Alameda County Child Care Planning Council is a resource for maps of providers in County and other resources.
- Frank: In Providence and Louisville, I was struck by power of different framing. In Louisville, a specific piece of data led the ECE coordinator to bring people together to discuss how to get x number of children reading by a certain date. It helps to take it from the abstract.
- Brendan: the FES numbers is small because we want to start by building blocks towards a sector-size project.
- Junious: the employment indicator is getting the employment rate to a citywide level.
- Don: YEP does a lot of work in these areas.
- Frank: are there individual conversations that need to take place? How much beyond work group members is the work being recognized? How would you move it out so that they become signature items?
- Jennie: the LSAC has been evolving slowly. We’re now much better positioned to involved residents around specific issues. Work groups are at a point to ask who else needs to be at the table. The candidate forum is an example; we were at a place to ask politicians to come to our table.
- Elena – this is a constant process of communication. As work groups go through this process, how do they connect with other groups? We acknowledge the need for identity and that the process is developing.
- Frank: Like the notion of speaking with one voice but using many voices. It shows the understanding of the need for getting more people in for broader ownership and putting things on the ground. The White Center experience is a good example. They organized a 3-hr/day, 8 wk program for 40 kids in the neighborhood who really needed pre-school. The notion is to start doing what you’ve been planning for. To do rather than plan to do.
- Josh: Agree. Get people involved and see what works, what doesn’t and modify. It’s a business model.
- Lisa: are there other groups that have collaboratives?
- Frank: All the groups have some form of collaboration. There are differences in which way you tilt: what we have now and what we’re going to create.
Local Ownership
- Frank: The goal is to begin early with sustainability. How can the foundation help to raise these issues now? There is already a lot of local ownership but do we have local ingredients for sustainability? Concern: this triggers positioning among partners around ownership. Would prefer to think about how are we collectively going to continue the work? Define the work first (consider the goals, how we are going to get there, how many families are we reaching, etc). From here, think about how we will sustain this. A short paper on sustainability will be sent out soon.
- Don: wondering if we get to year 6, 7, 8 and we haven’t gotten to this place, what happens?
- Frank: by the end of 2006, we’ll come to how the practice will work.
Cohort of Families
- Frank: How do you begin to know you’re making a difference and bring the pieces together for families, a network of families with a full set of opportunities and supports (employment, health, ECE, etc)? It involves thinking carefully about geography and thinking together as work groups. The advantage is that it makes a difference for families. The side advantage is that it makes the case that these are the correct strategies and need to be taken to scale. We aren’t giving up on the MC agenda, it is just a way to show impact.
- Frank: We would love to share what Louisville, White Center and others are doing on this.
- Junious: how do we connect this with the resident network idea?
- Don: VITA sites are an example of where families can connect to this network and resources. Word of mouth is the best PR you can get, as long as the support is meaningful.
- Lisa: we need to keep this going the rest of the year.
- Elena: the cultural center will be a common gathering place and a doorway into other programs and supports. It’s a passport approach.
- Frank: You need to have something real to offer folks. Start small and build.
- Francell: Health work group is looking at other work group plans to see where we might connect, understand and have cohesion with other work groups.
- Frank: that would be healthy for every work group.
- Suzanne: resident network concept is happening informally (groups don’t always know what’s happening in other work groups. But when people start to attend events, those connections get made and it doesn’t have to be formalized.
- Don: the more we support each other in our efforts, the better.
- Mara: in line with supporting each other is to remember the Neighborhood Grants project. Mara will send out the flyer once Jessica and Porthira get it together.
- Elena: Malcolm X Jazz Festival is another example/opportunity.
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