Last month, we described how Eastside Pathways is creating a new leadership structure for the Partnership with a goal to shift power and lift voices of the community most impacted by existing systems, and lead and support partners in individual and collective work towards equity pathways for children, youth, and young adults. The Partnership will spend time in 2023 to shape its strategic plan for 2024-2027 with this new leadership included. In the second of two articles about the future of leadership for Eastside Pathways, we will describe the plans for the new leadership of the Eastside Pathways Backbone and Board.
Eastside Pathways was founded in 2011 to bring community stakeholders together in a structured, collaborative way to support all children by strengthening the environment and resources. What began as an idea quickly gained traction; Eastside Pathways was established as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) by the end of that year to formally provide structure and integrity to the important work to come. It was a critical recognition of the importance of children and youth and commitment to the promise of community-based collaborative approach as a platform for systemic change.
One entity, two leadership groups
In the early days of Eastside Pathways, the Board oversaw everything: both the strategic vision of the Partnership, AND the financial and administrative functions of the Backbone. As the entity matured over the years, it became clear that the Partnership’s vision should, could, and eventually would be shaped by the community of focus whose lived experiences provide them with the necessary expertise and perspective. In 2023, Eastside Pathways will capitalize on a ripe opportunity to actualize the community-based principles on which Eastside Pathways was founded by assembling a community-based leadership group to direct the Partnership’s future.
The goal is for the Partnership to be comprised of and led by the communities being served.
As a recognized nonprofit organization, Eastside Pathways Backbone must still be overseen by a Board whose primary responsibility is to manage the Executive Director and ensure the organization’s compliance with the governance and financial requirements described by state and federal laws. In the past, as many as 18 individuals, generally representing senior leadership of partner organizations, served on the Eastside Pathways Board. Since the new Partnership Leadership will be taking on the strategy and vision, the Board can and should be leaner as it focuses on organizational and financial oversight. Appropriately, the newly streamlined Board will be comprised of trustees who bring expertise in governance, administration/management, and finance. “It’s not that Eastside Pathways leadership is being disbanded; rather it’s coming into a new iteration of leadership,” said one trustee.
Eastside Pathways will also have a new Executive Director in 2023, as Stephanie Cherrington vacates the position after over a decade in the role. The Executive Director is responsible for overseeing the Backbone staff, execution of Eastside Pathways programs, financial management, fundraising, and stakeholder engagement. Admittedly, the process of confirming her replacement has taken somewhat longer than expected, but the search team is confident that the additional time for the search – think of it as “gracious space” – will enable the new Executive Director to start the job of managing the Eastside Pathways Backbone and activities with clarity of purpose and scope.
The role of supportive funding: staying the course
The exciting transformations of the past and coming years would not be possible without the consistent financial support of funders who understand the importance and impact of collaborative, systems-level work, especially in times of change. It’s relatively easy to envision and state a population goal, but staying the course for community-wide, measurable progress towards those goals – the very work of collaborative action – is so much harder, particularly because the work carries across years.
Eastside Pathways is grateful for the thoughtful, intentional support of many individual donors, private foundations, and public grants. Such generosity sustains a strong Backbone staff to engage Partners, facilitate convenings, and maintain momentum for collectively generated initiatives. Narima Amin of Global Social Business Partners explains why her organization is a Philanthropic Partner in this way: Eastside Pathways is really unique because it “has the relevant knowledge, power, leverage, credibility, and network resources in the community to advance itself and its Partner organizations.”
It may seem that the timing of changes to the Partnership, Board, and Backbone are coincident, but the reasons for the changes are independent of each other. A new Partnership Leadership group is emerging because the groundwork, which began in mid-2021, has been laid and the timing is right for community-based leadership. The Eastside Pathways Board will be streamlined because the Board’s responsibilities have been better defined. And the Backbone with its new Executive Director will continue to build an interconnected web to actualize the desired outcomes envisioned by and for the children, youth, and young adults of our community. 2022 may be winding down, but Eastside Pathways Partners and Board are setting the open stage for an eventful, and even brighter, future ahead.
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