Planning Committee

Hismen Hinnu
April 8, 2004, 12:00-2:00 p.m.
Meeting Minutes

NEXT MEETING: May 6th from 12:00 to 2:00 at Hismen Hinnu

DECISIONS:

• There should not be as much detail in the April Site Report regarding “collapsing” of work groups: a more vague description until there is a greater consensus.
• Continue discussion around creating a more formal infrastructure or MOU about rules of engagement, infrastructure etc.
• The Facilitation Training should be held sometime in June before a blue print is developed for the transition of the collaborative.

NEXT STEPS/ASSIGNMENTS:

• Site Report Feedback due to Fred by Friday, April 9, and no later than Monday the 12 th.
• Planning Committee members asked that Deb re-send the e-mail requesting work plans and specific TA needs.
• Workgroups will respond to e-mail and submit work plans to Deb with detailed TA needs.
• LSA members should submit requests to Deb ASAP about content of afternoon RBA session.
• LSA Members need to decide which facilitator to use in the June Training and submit requests to Mara or Deb.

Attendees:

Elena Serrano, East Side Arts Alliance
Jennie Mollica, Lao family Development
Tamar Fendel, La Clinica de La Raza
Kristen Graser, La Clinica de La Raza
Sonja Shah, KQED
Junious Williams, Urban Strategy Counsel
Bill Wong, Consultant for Annie E. Casey Foundation
Don Davenport, San Antonio Community Development Corporation
Pat Constantine, San Antonio Community Development Corporation
Randy Tillery, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation
Sandra Chapin, Making Connections Oakland Site Team Member

Announcements:

• Sonja Shah said that the Screening of New Americans at the Parkway on Saturday, April 18th has been canceled after meeting with local CBO’s who suggested that it makes more sense for the modules be used differently. They suggested the 20 minute modules be made available to local CBO’s to be integrated into the program work already on the ground and in progress. The Unity Counsel will be having a screening in the near future. She asked members of the collaborative to think of ways to integrate the modules into the LSA work. KQED will pay for the materials, workshops, and anything else directly related to the screenings. It was suggested by Junious that she publish any screenings in the Unity newspaper.
• Don Davenport announced and passed out flyers for a Spring Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 10 from 12-4 at the Lakeside Park in Lake Merritt sponsored by the Communities United Committee.

Casey Interim Site Report:

Overview of Site Report for the AEC Foundation

Junious walked the group through the report and mentioned that it will be reviewed by the Joint Operations Team of AEC and that collaborative members should give general feedback to Fred about the Site Report Draft by Friday afternoon, Monday at the very latest.

Section III: It was noted that the Levers of Change section will also include language about public and private investments. Now, there are also 8 outcomes including, Early Childhood Education. Originally, after the retreat, the goal was to focus on the first four outcomes and refine those, but for the purpose of the report the full 8 outcomes will be used and won’t be as detailed as the first four.

Pat suggested adding Danny Wong to the LSA Collaborative Structure Chart to reflect the fact that there is involvement from the City and County elected officials.

Don mentioned as well that Ignacio Del La Fuente also helped them with some trash removal in the neighborhood and that SACDC works with the county on ECE issues and Head Start. Junious suggested that these comments be included in the detailed feedback they give to Fred.

Section IV: Junious said he used the Housing Workgroup materials as a starting point and updated and conformed it to fit the AEC model for the report. He did a similar thing with the updated Increased Asset Accumulation worksheet that was passed out. After the report is completed he would like to integrate the two frameworks so that for future reports there is not so much conforming of the various templates and getting the report out will be much less difficult.

Section V: Junious expressed feeling that on some level we were “creating fiction” because there is no information gathered about the financial structure even though the collaborative is being asked to raise the work to another level and sustain it.

Transition Planning:

Jennie gave an update from the Transition Subcommittee meeting on April 6 th. The subcommittee suggested ensuring that a decision-making structure was in place so that issues such as resource allocation, project approval, monitoring of outcomes, and dispute resolution could be addressed. There should be a kind of operations agreement or MOU and that this “entity” should include representatives of each workgroup. Each workgroup would submit work plans to the “entity” for approval and support so that the collaborative is working together and achieving the goals set out in the work plans.

The increased resident engagement effort might benefit from the creation of a work group, possibly overseen by ESAA, to increase resident participation the collaborative. These efforts could include town halls and would result in a common data base shared by al of the collaborative members. ESAA has developed a proposal called the Community Convening Plan that details how that might be achieved.

Pat expressed concern that in the report, Section III, the suggestion to collapse the Newspaper and MCMOI workgroups is a flawed idea. Pat feels that you cannot clump different workgroups into one because there are too many different cultural differences among the residents being served and that every workgroup has to have a different outreach strategy to accommodate the cultural differences.

Randy suggested that the different individuals and groups doing communication need to come together and share information, ideas, and strategies so they know what each other is doing. Sonya echoed Randy’s comments and said that there is no need to erase or diffuse the strategies being used by the groups to do outreach with their constituencies but that it is very important to have communication among members of the collaborative. She mentioned the added value of sharing data and information in terms of outreach efforts.

Elena mentioned that the resident engagement strategy was the kernel behind the idea and that a convening team, or work group, would be developed to strengthen this goal.

Junious said that it is essential to have a coherent communications strategy, to broker all of the information in one place, and that there is no need to clump groups together or collapse anything. He suggested for the sake of the report that we don’t use the term “collapse” but somehow frame the entire issue differently.

Don said that there was an attempt to do this early on in the collaborative but it got to the point where there were too many personality overlays. There needs to be a mechanism in place where folks feel safe and respected and as though they are players. When issues such as this become public among collaborative members it needs to be done in the right way.

Junious said that there is a need for a formal MOU so that it is clear about participation, rules of engagement, and infrastructure.

Scheduling and Planning

Mark Friedman Training Update:

The training on Results Based Approach will be May 18th from 8:30 to 5:00, location TBA. Additional staff is invited to the morning RBA 101 session from 8:30-12:00, but that the afternoon would be dedicated to the Making Connections collaborative from 1:00-4:30.

Deb requests input from collaborative members about what they would like to do in the afternoon session. One of the goals of the afternoon training could be to develop an RBA-based reporting system for the collaborative, i.e., a report template based on the work plans. Suggestions are welcome and needed to make sure members of the collaborative get the most of this training.

Work Plans:

Deb sent along a request for the work groups that they submit their work plans. Housing has already submitted its work plan but others have not. She needs more detailed information about the TA needs though. She wants more detailed information from every work group about what the timeline is for specific TA needs, the point of contact, and how much resource allocation might be needed. Members present asked that Deb re-send the TA e-mail because many don’t remember getting it or the request for specific detail.

Facilitation Training:

It is on the back burner at the moment and LSA members should weigh in on which of the three facilitators should be secured and about the duration of the training. Several members suggested using Communities at Work based on personal experience. Junious said Mara will supply more information on the trainer summary about ICA when she returns next week. It was suggested that June would be a good month for the training well before a blueprint for transition is established.

Updates on Work Groups:

ESAA: Every fourth Friday of the month the cultural center hosts a screening and April 30th there is a KQED film about Cambodian refugees. There is also a play being performed in the space on the 17th and 18th of April by APAL, a local youth group. The Malcolm X Jazz festival will be May 22nd in San Antonio Park.

KQED: The Native American Health Center is doing a series of health spots to be aired on KQED. There will also be a screening of “Girl Trouble” at the SF Youth Detention Facility followed by a workshop.

Health Work Group: The Health Promotores neighborhood outreach is now moving forward with the hiring of Kristen Graser. Kristen is currently recruiting Promotores and doing a needs assessment of the neighborhood.

FES Workgroup: EBAYC has completed the survey instrument and is currently being administered. David and Randy are rounding up CBO’s to do the same. It has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese.

USC: Junious said he is in the process of getting authorization from NORC to collect data?? Is this information correct Junious?

Newspaper Work Group: They have a new Yahoo user group. E-mail Don or Pat for more information.