engagement services

James Irvine Foundation

Type: 
Foundation
Overview 

The Jame's Irvine Foundation's mission is to expand opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, successful and inclusive society. James Irvine, a California agricultural pioneer, established the Foundation in 1937 to benefit the people of California. Since then, the Foundation has met the objectives of its founder by providing more than $1.3 billion in grants to over 3,500 nonprofit organizations across the state.

Our Services 
Engagement Services

National Alliance of Public Charter Schools

Type: 
Non-Profit Organizations
Overview 

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. The Alliance provides assistance to state charter school associations and resource centers, develops and advocates for improved public policies, and serves as the united voice for this large and diverse movement.

Our Services 
Engagement Services

Jacksonville Schools Show Graduation Rate Gains

TAGS:

The Florida Department of Education recently released new data that shows an increase of 4.6 percentage points in the graduation rate of the Duval County Public School District (DCPS).  DCPS comprises 177 schools, serving 125,000 students in the City of Jacksonville, Florida.  The district's four-year high school graduation rate now stands at 71.2 percent; its dropout rate stands at 2.3 percent.

"The gains in our graduation rate are proof that Duval County Public Schools is on its way to becoming the best large urban district in the country," DCPS Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals said in a statement.

Collaborative Communications Group has worked on the ground in Jacksonville for the past year, supporting the work of the Learning to Finish (LTF) Partnership.  Through the partnership, the Jacksonville Public Education Fund, The Community Foundation in Jacksonville, United Way of Northeastern Florida, Jacksonville Children's Commission and Duval County Public Schools have aligned their programs and resources to increase the graduation rate in Jacksonville. 

We applaud the success of the students, teachers and administrators of Duval County Public Schools.  Together with the support of committed community partners, they are making a demonstrable impact on the lives of Florida's students.

For more information on Jacksonville's graduation rate gains, see the DCPS press release.  For more information on Collaborative's work supporting collective impact efforts, see our strategic services page.

Date Added: Feb 10, 2012

AT&T/United Way Worldwide Grant Kick-Off Meeting Facilitation

The Challenge 

AT&T and United Way Worldwide (UWW) awarded twenty sites nationwide with a Family Engagement for High School Success Grant, which supports its initiative to help parents and caregivers get more involved in their child’s education, leading to high school success and workforce readiness.

UWW needed to support these sites with the initial planning and awareness building around family engagement in their local communities.

Our Approach 

UWW teamed up with Collaborative to facilitate this initial conversation. Bringing in our expertise on not only effective facilitation, but also extensive experience with family engagement, we guided these sites through the initial planning phases and helped them design effective strategies for their outreach. 

Our Impact 

By providing extensive support from the onset, these sites are equipped with the necessary knowledge and tools to engage families in their communities. The Harvard Family Research Project will be providing an ongoing evaluation of this project, which allows sites to understand the effectives of their strategies. As sites improve outreach, they support the UWW’s long-term goal of cutting the high school dropout rate in half by 2018.

Date Added: Mar 31, 2010
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United Way Innovation Network

The Challenge 

The Annie E. Casey Foundation and United Way have both pursued groundbreaking work to improve community conditions.  Recognizing the alignment between the AECF’s Making Connections initiative and United Way’s community impact agenda, United Way received a grant from AECF to explore the best practices for effective place-based, resident engagement work impacting education, income and health.

United Way Worldwide convened eight communities from across the country in an Innovation Network throughout 2009 to explore how this work can be effectively implemented to create sustainable community change. United Way Worldwide reached out to Collaborative Communications Group to assist in the learning and development of the Innovation Network.

Our Approach 

Collaborative supported this work through:

  • Facilitation of working group discussions to ensure successful consultation and decision-making
  • Shaping the content and agendas for three convenings of the Innovation Network
  • Building an online, interactive environment that will give participants in the Innovation Network an ongoing platform for continuing to connect, share and learn
Our Impact 

Collaborative was able to support the Innovation Network through its development and exploration of place-based, resident engagement work. Through the management of the three convenings, the Network was able to create tools and resources that have been combined into a toolkit for the entire United Way system.

The relationship with United Way Worldwide has grown and deepened, and Collaborative continues to support their work in a variety of ways.

Date Added: Mar 31, 2010
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Engaging CEOs of Local United Ways

The Challenge 

United Way Worldwide (UWW) sought to engage the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) around the unique challenges of leading Local United Way organizations in these difficult times.

Our Approach 

UWW looked to Collaborative to design and facilitate two face-to-face meetings and a series of webinars of a select group of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Local United Way organizations from across the nation. In these efforts, Collaborative provided the following:

  • Comprehensive planning team leadership
  • Overall design leadership for face to face meetings
  • Learning facilitation
  • Logistics and operational support
Our Impact 

Through these activities, Collaborative and UWW were able to engage the CEOs around the challenges of leading these local organizations, generate strategies for innovation and creativity in these challenging times, and equip them with the necessary tools to effectively mobilize communities for change.

Date Added: Mar 31, 2010
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Grant Process Documentation and Feedback Study

The Challenge 

JC Penney Afterschool Fund supported a grant to the United Way of America and the Forum for Youth Investment to help local United Ways undergo community-wide visioning around out-of-school time (OST) using the Ready by 21 Framework. The pilot grant required two local United Ways to participate in community-wide youth development data collection, program mapping, as well as learn new ways to get leaders from all sectors to work together in the community.

This capacity-building money is a boon to local United Ways and can help target and move an agenda for a pressing community need, such as increasing OST supports for children and youth. Although, this work has the potential to be leveraged across all local United Ways only if both United Way of America and Forum for Youth Investment understand the process that both sites embarked on, what worked and what could be improved.

United Way and the Forum asked Collaborative to document the important lessons learned by telling the story of these two local United Ways.

Our Approach 

In close collaboration with the United Way of America, the Forum for Youth Investment and the two local sites in Richmond, VA and Kansas City, MO, Collaborative:

  • Reviewed project materials about the grant, as well as materials from both local sites.
  • Developed an interview guide to structure the conversation in a way that would help pilot grant leads be reflective and open about the grant and how it impacted their organization and the community.
  • Identified fourteen individuals (seven in each community) to interview.
  • Wrote a report that included how the local effort unfolded, successes and challenges experienced, results achieved due to the efforts in each community, and lessons learned for other collaborative efforts.
Our Impact 

United Way of America and the Forum for Youth Investment can use this specific feedback about what worked and what needs to be improved to make this partnership and community-level work increasingly successful. As Collaborative began learning about the work from the different sites, we were able to pull themes and common threads to help United Way better understand how its local organizations are situated in communities and able to impact and drive change. Eventually, United Way and the Forum can think about how to replicate this model across the nation, and through this report they have tactical, specific improvements and recommendations for moving the work forward.

Date Added: Mar 13, 2010
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The National AfterSchool Association Hosted 2009 Convention

The Challenge 

The National AfterSchool Association (NAA) wanted to bring together afterschool professionals from across the nation to share best practices and to learn about new resources in the field.

Our Approach 

Having assisted with workshop coordination at the 2008 Convention, Collaborative had the experience, insight and creativity to successfully support the NAA's 2009 convention. Collaborative coordinated the workshop planning and preparation, as well as the Web site development, convention registration, exhibition sites, specials events, plenary sessions, networking events, site visits and participant activities.

Our Impact 

Speaker management included scheduling both the keynote speakers and workshop sessions.  This year's convention featured the following keynote speakers:

  • Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation, and human resources
  • General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State
  • Jeff Corwin, host of Animal Planet's The Jeff Corwin Experience

Collaborative facilitated the request for proposal process for workshop presenters.  With our strategic knowledge of the afterschool field, we reviewed proposals and selected content. The workshops were carefully planned to ensure an exciting and diverse suite of offerings. 

Collaborative also assisted NAA in the planning and execution of site visits and networking events. Site coordination occurred for the following:

  • Forums with a special speakers and panel discussions
  • Informal networking events and receptions
  • Facilitated discussions on timely afterschool topics
  • Invitation-only focus groups and research-based discussions
  • Membership meetings

Convention registration was a coordinated effort among NAA, Meetings Management Group (MMG), and Collaborative.  NAA supplied the content, MMG provided experienced management of convention planning, and Collaborative coordinated the efforts, fielded questions, and designed and maintained the convention Web site.

Date Added: Mar 13, 2010
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Policy Review: Documenting Legislative Successes of Statewide Afterschool Networks

The Challenge 

Each year, teams from each of the National Network of Statewide Afterschool Networks (SAN) are invited to join together to share ideas, resources and strategies for achieving the collective goals of the networks on governance, funding and quality of afterschool programs.  The national network meeting fosters cross-network learning with a range of opportunities for small group discussions on targeted topics.

The Mott Foundation-funded networks focus on collaborative learning and knowledge sharing. A need was recognized around helping state networks become leaders in impacting policy development, and becoming a go-to resource for policymakers. Learning to navigate the legislative landscape is challenging and often times, daunting. The meeting provides an opportune time for reflections on the legislative successes and challenges of the statewide afterschool networks.

Our Approach 

As part of Collaborative's longstanding role in supporting Mott's work with building SAN's knowledge base, in 2004 we began creating policy reviews that share knowledge and best practices. These reports debut each year at the national network meeting.

In 2008, Collaborative saw a need to go deeper into some of the success stories. With an advisory committee comprised of members of Afterschool Technical Assisstance Collaborative, we:

  • Managed the identification of the seven networks that we would interview and profile
  • Sought out the network leads to capture their stories and share lessons for other networks
  • Surveyed the remaining 31 networks on their legislative accomplishments from 2007-2008, and drafted statements for Developed and wrote a policy review that included the seven case studies and the other legislative successes
  • Engaged in feedback sessions with the Advisory Committee
  • Designed an accessible, easy-to-read policy review for widespread use and disseminated it at the January 2009 national network meeting in Tampa, FL.
Our Impact 

The National Network of Statewide Afterschool Networks continue to grow and expand their technical expertise and ability to become advocates for afterschool in the policy arena. This resource supports the networks in becoming effective leaders who policymakers will look to when making education and out-of-school time policy. This policy review is one way for networks to continue to stay informed on best practices of fellow states.

Find more information on the National Network of Statewide Afterschool Networks.

Date Added: Mar 13, 2010
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Bringing Communities Together to Eradicate the Achievement Gap

The Challenge 

The Kettering Foundation wanted to know how local education funds (LEFs) in six American cities implemented community forums to determine how the achievement gap is defined and expressed in public education systems, and the causes and possible solutions for closing this gap. The Foundation had created tools for moderators and participants of community forums, and sought to understand how these tools in practice surfaced important themes.

By supporting forums in six cities-Washington, DC; Corpus Christi, TX; Minneapolis, MN; Bridgeport, CT; New Orleans, LA and San Francisco, CA, the Foundation sought answers to the following key questions:

  • How do people in communities rename the issue known as the academic achievement gap?
  • What is happening in the six communities as a result of the public dialogues?
  • What are the challenges associated with using public dialogue to engage communities to address the achievement gap issue?
Our Approach 

Since late 2007, there have been 25 community forums about the achievement gap in these six cities, engaging over 1,500 participants from a wide range of backgrounds, including those of Somali, Hmong, Hispanic, Korean, Native American, White, African American and Chinese descent. Educators, superintendents, principals and teachers participated in the conversations.

Collaborative attended at least two forums in each of the six participating cities and also conducted more than 20 follow-up interviews with educators, parents and students impacted by the achievement gap discussions.

Collaborative analyzed findings and compiled a report of key themes and future potential steps for the Kettering Foundation to take when seeking to engage communities in deliberations about aspirations and actions for educational quality.

Our Impact 

Collaborative's efforts helped to reveal the nuances and understandings used in different communities when it comes to deliberations on the achievement gap. We found that communities repeatedly narrowed the focus from a broad academic concept of an achievement gap to more personal and local framings.

For example, minority students in Bridgeport compared the actions of White students to their own. Administrators in Minneapolis noted that members of ethnic groups who participated in conversations expressed a concern that the White power structure did not understand or honor their stories and did not help their children reach their full potential. This resulted in conversations around how to help all children reach their full potential.

Ultimately, the Kettering Foundation received a thoughtful analysis of themes from nationwide discussions, and an understanding of how their materials worked in practice to support local dialogue that leads to change.

Date Added: Mar 13, 2010
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