Eastside Pathways launched in June 2011 and since then much has happened.
We had the goal of building a community-wide commitment to enabling every child to succeed in our public schools, acknowledging that it takes our entire community working together to make this happen, not just our school system. Since June much has occurred; our progress is outlined below.
From Vision to Action
We are working now on the development of a shared vision, metrics and collaborative efforts. Simply stated – state the goal, build the plan, engage the community in making it happen.
The following graphic captures what we’ll eventually have in place. It comes from a presentation given at a recent collective impact event in Portland. The event was sponsored by Strive in Cincinnati, the organization Eastside Pathways has used as a guide in our journey.
Collective Action in a Nutshell: Over 40 Organizations Involved
Over the summer, some 90 people from 43 organizations across Bellevue, the Eastside and King County have worked to create the shared goals (strategic priorities in the chart) that will guide our work. Two age-based workgroups (focusing on kids pre-natal through 3rd grade and 4th grade through college) started by identifying information that would create a shared understanding of the current situations for kids in Bellevue. These came from sources as diverse as the Bellevue School District, King County Public Health and surveys from the City of Bellevue. The information covered community input, original research data and the experience of participating organizations.
In parallel, the groups sought to assess the community’s current services infrastructure. This resulted in a survey in which over one hundred organizations were asked to provide details of the services currently offered.
Each work group created a draft set of goals for that age-range. Then, the merged workgroups met on Sept. 21 to consider a draft set of goals that will serve as a basis for the next phase of Eastside Pathways work.
Phase 2 Starting in October
Currently, the group is considering a second draft of these goals. Once those are completed, we’ll move on to the next phase of work, starting in October. That phase will focus on engaging community groups, parents, funders and others in the community to provide feedback and possibly amendments to the goals. Also, we’ll launch goal-based work groups that will establish definitions, indicators, and initiatives to further the work. The intent is to have a baseline community report card and a set of action plans by April of this year.
It’s been astounding and heartening to see the energy and engagement community organizations have supplied to this work thus far.