Creating a Legacy Successfully Sustaining Your Community Based System

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Creating a LegacySuccessfully Sustaining
YourCommunity Based System

• Champions Program

Tom Wolff, Ph.D. Tom Wolff Associates 24 South
Prospect Street Amherst, MA 01002 tom_at_tomwolff.co
m [phone]
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Stand and Declare

• What We Believe About Sustainability

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Our team is too busy with its present agenda to
spend more than a small amount of time thinking
and planning for sustainability.
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If we continued all our present activities we
could achieve a transformation of our community
to one that supports children with special health
care needs.
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All our team activities and resources are of
equal value and should be sustained.
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The best way to change community attitudes is to
get elected officials and other formal community
leaders to become spokespersons for our cause.
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• Sustainability
• What does it call to mind?

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Myths of Sustainability

• Sustainability is best thought about in the
  waning months of your funding

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Myths of Sustainability

• Everything we do must be sustained

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Myths of Sustainability

• It is all about finding the money

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Myths of Sustainability

• Communities have the money to fund and sustain
  all pilot projects that show themselves to be
  effective and of value to the community

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Sustainability Outcomes

• I. Activities in the community (external)
• Practices sustained
• Programs sustained
• Policies sustained
• Funding policies
• System changes
• Changes in Community Attitudes

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Sustainability Outcomes (cont)

• Relationships and Partnerships
• Changes in relationships
• New Partnerships

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Sustainability Outcomes (cont)

• III. Functions of the Collaborative Team
  (internal)
• Monitoring of collaborative activities
• Acts as a catalyst for change
• Gatherer/convener
• Collaborative problem solving
• Including new program development, coordination

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Sample Legacy Statements

• Violence Prevention Sustainability Statement
• Ongoing process to maintain transformation of a
  geographic community from one that suffers from
  and reacts to violence to one that prevents
  violence (in all its forms) and supports lasting
  peace
• Institute for Community Peace

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Sample Legacy Statements (cont)

• Tobacco Control and Prevention Sustainability
  Statement
• Ongoing process to maintain the transformation
  of a geographic community from one that suffers
  from the use of tobacco and exposure to smoke to
  one that does not use tobacco and supports
  healthy and empowered individuals and communities.

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Sample Legacy Statements

• For teams working on issues regarding children
  with special health care needs what is the
  vision?
• -Phrases that come to mind

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Visioning Exercise

• Visioning Tool for Creating a Common Vision
• It is two years from now and a local newspaper
  has decided to do a feature story on your
  coalition. The story will focus on the changes
  and accomplishments that have occurred through
  the coalition over the last two years. The
  reporters have interviewed you and many other
  community and coalition members about the
  history, problems and issues in the community,
  how residents came together, and the changes the
  community has undergone. The focus of the article
  will be on both the accomplishments and changes
  in the way the coalition functions and is
  structured.
• What does the article say?
• As a group do the following
• Write a headline for the article
• Note the specific priorities that emerge for the
  next two years
• Remember This is your VISION of what could
  happen if the initiative were organized and
  working together for common goals. Be daring!

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Sustainability Planning Process

• Building Blocks
• Vision,Mission, Goals, objectives, activities
• Shared Understanding of Sustainability
• Vision,Specifics of your legacy
• Assessment
• Inventory of present program components
• Decide on criteria for sustainability
• Impact, Costs and benefits, Is there still a
  need?
• Community support is strong, Potential funding
• Prioritize Which activities you need to
  continue?
• Which skills do you need to develop?

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Four Approaches to Sustainability

• Institutionalization of changes
• Policy change
• Community ownership/capacity building
• Finding resources to sustain the effort

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Exs. With Medical Home

• Institutionalization of changes
• Part of medical residency training program
• Policy change
• Insurers create incentives
• Community ownership/capacity building
• Becomes the practice in hospitals,
  clinics,schools
• Finding resources to sustain the effort
• Seek on going grant support

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Institutionalization Guiding Questions

• What programs do you hope to institutionalize?
• Who could adopt them?
• How will you engage them?
• If you spin off programs, what are the
  implications for the collaborative?

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Coalition Task Force Process

• Identify stakeholders
• Define the problem
• Investigate options
• Design a response

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Coalition Task Force Process (cont)

• Secure resources
• Implement the plan
• Evaluate and adapt
• Spin off

Source B.L.Hathaway Growing a Health Community
American Journal of Community Psychology, Vol.29,
No 2, 2001
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The Continuum of Collaboration

• Networking
• Exchanging information for mutual benefit.
• Coordination
• Exchanging information and modifying activities
  for mutual benefit.

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The Continuum of Collaboration (cont)

• Cooperation
• Exchanging information, modifying activities, and
  sharing resources for mutual benefit to achieve a
  common purpose.
• Collaboration
• Exchanging information, modifying activities,
  sharing resources, and enhancing the capacity of
  another for mutual benefit and to achieve a
  common purpose, by sharing risks, resources,
  responsibilities, and rewards.

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Policy - Guiding Questions

• What policies will help you to your goals?
• Large policies
• Small Policies
• What must be done to achieve these policy changes?

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Community ownership- guiding questions

• Who is the community?
• Provider community?
• Parents and families
• Overall community institutions (churches, boy
  scouts, girl scouts etc.)
• Grassroots residents

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Community Ownership - Guiding Questions (cont.)

• What community norms do you wish to change?
• Who in the community can influence these norms?
• How do you engage them?
• What part of the collaboratives activities would
  you like to have owned by the community?

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Guiding Questions (cont)

• How have you engaged residents?
• How have you assessed the assets of the
  community?
• How can you engage and affect the media?

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How Have You EngagedCommunity Residents?
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Four ways to commit resources to increase
community engagement

• Mini-grants
• Leadership development
• Community outreach workers
• Community organizing

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Benefits of Community(Neighborhood) Organizations

• They can reach high risk and hard to reach
  populations.
• They work with formal leaders and informal
  leaders.
• Community organizations know what works in their
  communities!
• Community organizations are community archivists.

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Benefits of Community(Neighborhood)
Organizations (cont)

• Community organizations can promote ownership and
  participation. They are the best architects of
  solutions.
• Community organizations build local leadership.
• Community organizations can help create positive
  norms in the community.

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Guiding Questions Finding resources to sustain
the effort

• What resources are needed to sustain your
  collaborative activities?
• Which can be continued with hard resources?
• Where will you find them?

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Guiding Questions Finding resources to sustain
the effort

• Which of the following techniques might you use?
  Grants,
• Seek government ,
• Local, State, Federal
• Foundations
• Fees,
• Fees for service
• Which can be sustained by in kind resources?
• Who can you turn to for in kind resources?
• Space, Staff, Etc.

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Action PlanningBuilding the Future
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• How can I take all this material on
  sustainability back home?
• What is most relevant?
• What does not apply?