Planning Committee

Hismen Hinnu
July 15, 2004 12:00-2:00 p.m.
Meeting Notes

NEXT MEETING – August 5, 12-2pm

• InfoOakland Data Warehouse training on Thursday July 22nd, 5:30-7:30pm
• Joint Opps Meeting – July 27th-29th
• Nina Simone event at ESAA Friday evening, July 30th

DECISIONS:

• The group decided not to take advantage of Mark Friedman when he will be out here on October, 14th since the RBA training is not really relevant to where we are right now or where we need to go. It will be better timing to have him come out at the end of the year when we are developing our work plans for the year.

NEXT STEPS:

• USC will edit existing transition plan documents and have conversations with individual members and work groups about issues and other models. Once these meetings take place, USC will bring everyone back together to discuss findings.
• Mara will resend the chart of possible facilitation trainers to everyone and USC will post samples of their work on the MC website and send the link. Timing would be early fall.

Attendees:

Fred Blackwell, Making Connections Site Coordinator
Sandra Chapin, Making Connections Oakland Site Team Member
Don Davenport, San Antonio Community Development Corporation
Kristen Graser, La Clinica de La Raza
Mara Guccione, Urban Strategies Council
Jennie Mollica, Lao Family Community Development
Deb Montesinos, Montesinos and Associates
Carl Pascual, EBALDC
Joy Ramos, La Clinica de La Raza
Elena Serrano, East Side Arts Alliance
Karen Stevenson, Core Communications
Junious Williams, Urban Strategies Council
Bill Wong, Consultant for Annie E. Casey Foundation
Pat Constantine, San Antonio Community Development Corporation

Announcements:

• St. Elizabeth Health Fair, from 10am to 4pm on July 24 th. Please spread the word.
• The Oak Tree project will donate service grants to nonprofits to improve the internal capacity building of CBO’s.
• Beautification of Clinton Park on July 30 th, 10am-2pm
• InfoOakland Data Warehouse training on Thursday July 22 nd, 5:30-7:30pm

Updates

Joint Opps Meeting

• Karen went through the specific details of the communications materials and the site tour. The vans for the tour will leave at 5:15pm and stop at four places: 1) Fruitvale Station, 2) La Clinica, 3) Lao Family, 4) Oak Park Apartments. The group will then have dinner at La Estrellita and they will receive gift bags.
• Fred thanked everyone for their work on the joint Opps meeting. There are 10 sites coming, including ours. The idea is to talk about common issues, focusing in on how we think about powerful strategies to achieve results, and how issues of race, class and culture impact the work.

Casey Site Team Update

• The July site report is due on Monday July 19 th. There are new sections, including 1) Transferring ownership to residents and the community and 2) Impact, influence and leverage.

Transition Planning

• Transition planning has been somewhat postponed; we need more feedback and to align with the evaluation report. Several events have concluded this. One is a reaction to the plan from David Kakishiba, who asked the question of whether we need the Planning Committee. He feels that the work groups are functioning and formalizing the Planning Committee feels like creating a new organization that may siphon funding away from important existing projects. There was also the idea that final decision-making goes to the site team, but Fred disagreed. Basically, Junious reported that David’s question was is it time to think about rebirthing the initiative given the outcomes of the Oak to 9th project.
• Don expressed the need for some structure to hold this work together. Kristen raised issue of the Health Work Group needing revitalization prior to the transition. Deb added that we should strengthen all the work groups so that they have capacity to achieve results.
• USC will edit existing documents and have conversations with individual members about issues and other models. Once these meetings take place, USC will bring everyone back together. It is important to honor the dynamic of each individual work group and to get feedback from everyone to help build the agenda for the next Transition meeting.
• Fred mentioned that the transition planning made clear what the LSAC needs in place (leadership, coordination/administration, TA). We can still move forward with making sure these things are in place.
• Jennie said that we never really formulated a vision for the Transition and put it in writing. She also feels that we have lost energy and connection to our 2003-04 work plans. Fred suggested getting the work plans out and auditing them; say what else has happened, been accomplished in addition to what is in the plans. Sonya added that we should keep in mind that there are certain pieces in the work plan that can’t move forward without other pieces moving forward. But, the plans need to move forward for the sake of morale.

Scheduling/Planning

• Facilitation training came back to the table. Fred suggested sending 2-3 people from each work group. Mara will resend the chart of possible facilitation trainers to everyone and USC will post samples of their work on the MC website and send the link. Timing would be early fall.
• Deb mentioned that Mark Friedman will be in the area in October and wanted to know if we would like his assistance with anything. The group decided that there is no real need for him at this time.
• Fred discussed Seattle’s work group coach who helps shepherd the work plans through. Jennie expressed concern that this would take responsibility off of the work group members and the energy would come from the consultant. She feels that work groups need to decide themselves which areas they need help on and then to be held accountable if they don’t achieve results. Junious suggested a peer model for the coaching.

Work Group Updates

• 23rd Avenue is meeting next week, on Monday July 19th, 12-2pm. It will include pictures with Urban Ecology’s plan on visuals, boards for public meetings. The City of Oakland has set aside $100,000 for engineering for the 23rd Avenue as a result of the work groups efforts.
• FES survey report at the last meeting; next meeting is Thursday July 22nd at EBAYC. There is a desire to broaden the audience for the meeting. USC is doing analysis on the survey data. Health, construction, housing ownership, affordable rentals and business are the priorities. There will be a community convening over the next few weeks to discuss the findings and develop a strategy and agenda.
• Junious reported that the cross-site survey data has been sent and he passed out a sample. We don’t have the comparison to the city-county yet. He asked that people wait to cite and release the data. USC will resend the survey instrument to refresh memories. USC will also look through the data for relevant items and make sure everyone has results.
• Housing group is sticking to the work plan and their four goals, including two around affordable housing development, another around renter’s rights and code compliance, and finally access to homeownership education and resources.
• Regarding the PRI investments: Fred reported a two-step approval process for housing and $2 million for revolving home fund. The next step is social investment staff coming her in the fall to work out the details. Junious reported that InfoOakland has the first draft of the citywide report, which USC will send to Jennie to distribute to everyone, prior to next Wednesday’s meeting. Don said that he may know of an interested funder and will share with the real estate council, which will meet on July 28 th.
• Health work group reported on the Promotoras project and the current recruitment process underway. They need help from other members to get the word out about the project. They also expressed concern about the indicators and results not matching the program activities in the site team report. There is pressure on the Promotoras project to be carrying out outcomes and resident engagement, but we are not sure exactly what the promotoras will be doing yet. There is a need for other health work group members to be held accountable to the outcomes. This led to a larger discussion about baselines and targets. Jennie concurred that each work group and project should come up with their own rather than rely on the foundation’s. Kristen said that they need to know up front what the expectations are of the Promotoras project. They could also come up with measures based on what a successful project should accomplish. Junious said that all of us should be looking at the question of whether or not activities are powerful enough to move the results.

Projects

• Early childhood education is revising their concept paper/proposal and building the parent organizing piece. Next meeting is August 3rd.
• Small Grants has staffing from Cambodian Community Development and LIFETIME as well as some interest from potential committee members. They are also revising existing curricula.

Next Meeting: August 5, 12-2pm