Power of Partnership™ Initiative

4Initiative Executive Summary

History:  As part of a strategic planning process, in February of 2006, United Way of Santa Barbara
County convened three expert forums to discuss the most important issues in the health and human
service areas of Children, Families, and Seniors.  The purpose of these forums was to solicit input from
non-profit, community, governmental, funding and educational experts on the current state of services
and the desired aspirations and outcomes for each area.  Through the discussions of these experts,
United Way became aware of our community’s need and preparedness to adopt a consensus-based
Master Action Plan (MAP) for each of the three areas. After subsequent discussions with our Board of
Directors, local health and human service leaders, local funders, and a variety of community leaders and stakeholders, United Way is launching the Power of Partnership™ Initiative to develop these community
Master Action Plans.

Need:  In the region spanning Santa Ynez Valley to Carpinteria, there are currently no comprehensive, community-wide strategic plans for Children, Families, or Seniors that have general acceptance and adherence from a majority of different stakeholders. While in the last thirty years our community has seen a tremendous proliferation of services to local people in need, we have not during this time adopted a strategy to help integrate our efforts and align our resources towards agreed-upon goals. The situation is analogous to a large organization (the community) providing no common vision, goals, measurable objectives, or strategies to its various divisions or departments (service providers, funders, families etc.) and still expecting successful results. Further aggravating this situation is the fact that area experts predict escalating numbers of people needing services, reduced resources, greater competition among providers, and critical program failures within the next ten years. Currently, no one – including the experts – is quite sure how we will adapt to meet these growing needs.

Initiative Description: In July, 2006, United Way began contacting area experts and stakeholders to form
a steering committee for each area to begin work towards the creation of a Master Action Plan.  The goal
of Phase One of the Initiative will be to finish an initial version of each MAP, ultimately consisting of a
Vision Statement, Benchmarks, prioritized Goals, measurable Objectives, and Strategies to achieve those objectives.  The MAPs will be based on ten year aspirational goals with periodic measurement markers.
Each steering committee will also hold community forums to develop consensus in the creation and
utilization of the MAP. After the MAP is finished, it will be disseminated to stakeholders and the community
at large.  Phase Two of the Initiative will be an ongoing process of developing greater involvement from local stakeholders, convening ongoing service provider and funder forums, gathering data regarding services
focused on the goals, measuring progress, updating the MAP, and communicating results to the community.

Benefits:  The Power of Partnership™ Initiative will generate an expert-driven, consensus-based prioritization of the community’s hopes for Children, Families, and Seniors. This shared vision, along with the Master Action Plans, will strengthen our community’s efforts to increase the effectiveness of current and future attempts to improve people’s lives and the underlying conditions giving rise to our health and human service challenges. Through developing common goals, strategies, measurements, and a shared language for our endeavors, our community will achieve a greater integration of service efforts and enhance our ability to increase the overall well-being of our children, families, and seniors.  The benefits will include:  greater efficiency and effectiveness in achieving meaningful objectives, reduced service duplication, improved collaboration and partnering among service providers, increased cooperative interactions between local funders, and increased communication between all the stakeholders.  In short, the initiative will produce what we all want—more meaningful results and a stronger community.
 

4Initiative Purposes and Goals

Phase One - Year 1

For each of the groups - Children, Families and Seniors:

1. Inventory the community assets (resources) currently available (used or unused) and envision what they might look like in the future.
2. Develop a clear picture of the current state of the three groups.
3. Build a consensus-driven vision of what our community would like for each of these groups - 10 years in the future.
4. Develop funding to finance the Power of Partnership™ Initiative process.
5. Create a Master Action Plan (MAP) - agreed upon by as many of the community stakeholders as possible.
6. Develop prioritized, targeted Goals and specific Outcomes for periodic measurement that progress toward the 10 year aspirations.
7. Begin to develop Strategies to achieve the Goals and Outcomes.
8. Communicate the MAP to stakeholders, service providers, community leaders, local funders, and the community at large.
9. Develop the Power of Partnership™ Initiative's ongoing process.

Phase One - Years 2-5

For each of the groups - Children, Families and Seniors:

1. Develop donor-centric measurement and communication tools to measure and communicate progress. toward the community's 10 year Goals and Outcomes.
2. Develop increased participation in the MAP's by community stakeholders.
3. Develop increased funding to finance the ongoing Power of Partnership™ Initiative.
4. Create ongoing forums to help coordinate service delivery to maximize progress towards the MAP's goals.
5. Reduce service duplication.
6. Increase program efficiency and effectiveness.
7. Create ongoing forums to help coordinate community resources to maximize progress towards the MAP's goals.
8. Build consensus among funding sources to focus on MAP goals and reduce duplication and overlap of services.
9. Promote the Master Action Plan to assist  funders in making their  allocations decisions.
10. Inspire new collaborations and partnerships that help to efficiently address the MAP's priorities and the community's needs.
11. Use the information gathered to update the MAP.
12. Examine duplicated overhead costs between programs and seek economies of scale to help reduce overhead and increase direct service resources.
13. Implement social marketing campaign to educate community members around defined vision, goals, and strategies.

4Potential Initiative Benefits

1. Expert driven, consensus-based prioritization of the community's aspirations for Children, Families and Seniors.
2. Creation of a Master Action Plan (MAP) for each area, comprising a vision statement, specific goals, measurable outcomes, and consensus-driven strategies.
3. Increased effectiveness in improving the underlying community conditions giving rise to current and future health and human service challenges.
4. Increased overall well-being of Children, Families and Seniors.
5. Clarity of focus and outcomes for the communities' health and human service investments.
6. Guidance and feedback to individual and organizational philanthropic investors.
7. Increased cooperative interaction among community, state, regional and national  funding institutions.
8. Ability to better coordinate the community's response to fill gaps in service delivery.
9. Reduced service duplication.
10. Increased program efficiency and effectiveness.
11. Reduced agency overhead costs resulting from an increase in shared resources or services.
12. Increased collaboration and partnering among our communities' health and human service organizations.
13. Improved services for clients through a more effective health and human service system.
14. Increased awareness and mobilization of the community at large around Master Action Plan goals and strategies.
15. Creation of community-wide measurement system around MAP goals and outcomes.

4Initiative Process Information

1. Establish a Vision Council of community leaders to oversee, promote and direct the Power of Partnership™ Initiative
2. Build steering committees of community leaders and area experts to help define and drive the development for each of the Master Action Plans (MAP) for Children, Families, and Seniors. Provisionally, the three Steering Committees will meet quarterly.
3. Hold community-wide forums for stakeholders and community members to participate and collaborate in the development of each of the MAP's.  Provisionally, the three community forums would be held quarterly.
4. Working group meetings will be held as needed.
5. United Way of Santa Barbara County's Board, Staff, and Volunteers will invest and raise funds to finance the Power of Partnership™ Initiative process.
6. United Way of Santa Barbara County (UWSBC) will coordinate the Initiative.  UWSBC will hire a Power of Partnership™ Initiative Coordinator and administrative assistant.
7. Each Steering Committee will determine the best ways to achieve the Initiative Process Goals and will create action steps to reach those goals.
8. The Initiative will develop and complete a MAP for each of the three groups by the end of the first year.
9. Use existing data and community input to develop an asset-based resource map.
10. Revise and modify as needed.

4Initiative Process Guiding Principles

• Aspirational rather than need-based.
• Start with what we have
  aStaffing
  aFunding
  aInfrastructure

• Engage all stakeholders at their level of interest

Moving our community's health and human service efforts...from...to...

1. Competition to Collaboration

a. Up front and ongoing involvement of key stakeholders

b. Resources multiplied through collective synergy

c. Core ongoing network of quality collaborations for rapid response to future opportunities

 

2. Confusion to Consensus

a. Factually based

b. Negotiated agreements on "how to's."

c. Clear definition of meaningful changes we choose to make

 

3. Meandering to Measuring

a. Meaningful measurements to all stakeholders

b. Defined, measurable community outcomes

c. Ongoing systemic focus on changing community conditions

 

4. Inferring to Investing

a. Expectations defined

b. Resource requirements considered at every step

c. Investor feedback systems integral to design

 

5. Avoidance to Attraction

a. Everybody with something to contribute can participate

b. Best efforts guaranteed with complete disclosure of risks

c. Culturally sensitive plans on how we will achieve our results

 

6. Immobility to Innovation

a. Action based process

b. Experimentation (risks disclosed up front)

c. "Breakthrough's" sought

 

7.  Assumption to Accountability

a. Ethical, effective and efficient management process

b. High fiscal standards

c. Transparent reporting

4Stakeholder Groups

Power of Partnership™ Vision Council
 

Children & Families Steering Committee

POPI Vision Council Members