Dr. B.J. Bischoff is the owner of Bischoff Performance Improvement Consulting, a Sonoma firm specializing in building the capacity of nonprofit organizations and public sector agencies to better serve their stakeholders. She assists her clients with strategic planning, training resulting in performance improvement, fund development, and community relations. She is Past President of Impact100 Sonoma and serves as a Sonoma County Board of Supervisors’ appointee to the Sonoma County Portfolio of Model Upstream Programs Review Committee. Contact her at [email protected].
Nonprofits collaborating to support Sonoma Valley teens
A common question that arises in communities with many nonprofit organizations serving similar populations is, “Why don’t these organizations collaborate?” In response to that key question, organizations serving Sonoma Valley teens have recently started exploring collaboration possibilities.
Spearheaded by the leadership of Sonoma Valley Teen Services (SVTS), executive directors and 25 program leaders from over 10 local organizations that serve Sonoma Valley teens met in September to start a conversation on collaboration.
SVTS Board President Marguerite Ladue kicked off the meeting by stating, “We won’t have a sustainable Sonoma if we don’t have solid kids entering the community as productive adults…as happy, healthy, contributing members of our community.” She added that her hope was for this group of nonprofit leaders who serve teens to begin to develop a shared vision and gain some momentum through collaboration that will result in positive outcomes for Sonoma Valley teens.
In addition to SVTS, other participating organizations included Social Advocates for Youth, CASA, Boys and Girls Club of Sonoma Valley, Hanna Boys Center, 10,000 Degrees, Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance, Ceres Community Project, La Luz Center, the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, and the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. As a way to start the process of collaboration, group members identified the core competencies of the organizations they represent and the services they provide for Sonoma Valley teens. They also shared their thoughts on the most important needs of Sonoma Valley teens. These identified needs included encouragement and hope for the future; community connections and a sense of belonging; competence, resilience, autonomy, and a sense of value; structure and life balance; and basic food, clothing and shelter needs.
The major outcome of the meeting was that the group identified three major areas for immediate collaboration: (1) Find ways to reach teens who may be falling through the cracks by creating a safety net for youth, (2) Develop an information referral hub/community resource map so parents and teens know what school- and community-based services are available to support teens; and (3) Identify job opportunities for teens for the summer of 2015 so that youth can explore prospective careers. Group participants volunteered to serve on one of three subcommittees, with each subcommittee addressing one of the three issues. The full group plans to meet again November 17 to develop an action plan for moving forward.
Whitney Evans, a Sonoma Valley volunteer leader who has served many local nonprofits over the past 20 years, is participating in the collaboration conversation. His aspiration for this collaboration is that the highest possible number of teens will be reached. He added this example of a possible outcome, “shared strategies for job readiness will result in employer confidence in hiring teens because they know that the teen has completed a Ready to Work program that has been developed by and approved by the nonprofits.”
For this teen-serving collaboration to be successful, it will be essential for it to have a clear direction and solid infrastructure. The Catalyst Fund for Nonprofits, a group supporting nonprofit collaborations in the Boston area, defines collaboration in this way: (1) meaningfully changes the way participating organizations do business for the long-term; (2) requires board involvement as a high-level, strategic activity, and; (3) preserves, expands, or improves services to constituents. Dialogue at the board level will need to occur to ensure success.
In addition, the leadership of the collaborating organizations will need to critically look at better ways to serve their constituents and may wish to develop different ways of delivering services. Since this community conversation began, SVTS has discontinued its Homework Club and after-school art program because its leadership discovered that the Sonoma Valley Unified School District and other partners present at the first meeting were already providing these services. Other examples of partner organizations changing their service delivery may follow as the collaboration discussion continues.
Research conducted by the Catalyst Fund in 2013 revealed that the three main ingredients of a successful nonprofit collaboration are effective leadership, clear and aligned objectives, and adequate resources and expertise. The research indicated that a key to effective board and staff leadership involved the ability to develop trusting personal and professional relationships among the board and staff of collaborating organizations.
The research also revealed that partner organizations with a clear sense of their own priorities were in a strong position to achieve common collaboration goals. Effective strategic collaborations frequently require professional technical assistance and help with governance, finance, program design, legal issues, and meeting facilitation. Sonoma Leadership Systems owner Jeni Nichols recognizes the importance of supporting this collaboration initiative and provided pro bono facilitation services for the first meeting. RaboBank has lent its support by underwriting the costs of refreshments for the first meeting.
It will be exciting to see how this nonprofit collaboration progresses. By creating some early successes, this group of teen-serving organizations could set a precedent in community collaboration that will prompt other local nonprofits serving a common constituency to follow suit. And it will be important for community businesses and individuals to support these collaborative efforts, resulting in better services for all.
Leaders from Sonoma Valley nonprofits that serve teens and wish to be a part of this teen-serving collaboration conversation may contact Cristin (Lawrence) Falco at [email protected]. Special thanks to Jean Hopeman for providing information to support this article.
Dr. B.J. Bischoff is the owner of Bischoff Performance Improvement Consulting, a Sonoma firm specializing in building the capacity of nonprofit organizations and public sector agencies to better serve their stakeholders. She assists her clients with strategic planning, training resulting in performance improvement, fund development, and community relations. She is Past President of Impact100 Sonoma and serves as a Sonoma County Board of Supervisors’ appointee to the Sonoma County Portfolio of Model Upstream Programs Review Committee. [email protected].
