A Reflection from Kelly Jones
Last month, I had the privilege of connecting with staff from four other Pacific Northwest collective impact efforts at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2014 Collective Impact Grantee Meeting.
This day-long meeting covered a range of topics related to backbone operations, particularly data and measurement and parent engagement. Besides the whole-group discussions and presentations, we also broke off in smaller groups for “clinics” to share the most pressing issues facing our organizations and brainstorm potential solutions.
The following collective impact efforts were represented at the meeting:
- All Hands Raised, Portland and Multnomah County, OR
- Excelerate Success, Spokane, WA (staffed by Spokane County United Way)
- Graduate Tacoma!, Tacoma, WA (staffed by the Foundation for Tacoma Students)
- The Road Map Project, South Seattle and South King County, WA (staffed by the Community Center for Education Results)
Having three other Washington-based organizations in attendance was uniquely helpful. We were able to discuss state-specific issues such as the College Bound Scholarship, the Early Achievers system, and the Education Research and Data Center (ERDC).
That said, much of the work of a cradle-to-career network looks similar across state lines. The All Hands Raised partnership has a well-established “Ninth Grade Counts” collaborative to smooth the transition from middle to high school. It provides a strong example for Eastside Pathways of what the work of supporting student transitions might look like.
Throughout the day, Gates Foundation Program Officer Ken Thompson kept track of key themes and ideas from our rich discussions by covering the floor-to-ceiling whiteboard walls with notes.
The final chunk of notes, seen here, reflects our discussion of systems change and what collective impact might look like over the long run.
We wondered about what it would take to get from 90 percent to the full 100. We considered whether the stability of collective impact might help reduce the churn in top-level leadership such as district superintendents. We wrestled with the difference between systems-building and community-building.
Ultimately, we decided that systems change cannot be the endpoint of this work. It has to end with improved outcomes for kids. I look forward to leaning on these new connections for ideas and advice as we support each other and our local networks in getting there.
Article written by Kelly Jones, data officer at Eastside Pathways.