A Perfect Storm for Population Health - Teaching Prevention
The Keys to Successful Coalition Building_Sarah Smolowitz_FINAL
1. This conference is sponsored by
ENDING HUNGER THROUGH
CITIZEN SERVICE CONFERENCE
NEW ORLEANS MARRIOTT METAIRIE
JANUARY 21-26, 2015
2. This conference is sponsored by
YOUR NAME
YOUR TITLE
YOUR ORGANIZATION
Please feel free
to add your
company logo
THE KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL COALITION BUILDING
Sarah Smolowitz
Anti Hunger-Opportunity Corps VISTA
The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona
Tucson, AZ
3. This conference is sponsored by
OBJECTIVES AND GOALS
By the end of this presentation:
• You will be able to define what a coalition is and how it
works
• Learn how to recruit potential members
• Gain an understanding of key best practices and benchmarks
for success
• Troubleshoot common (and uncommon) problems in
coalition building
4. This conference is sponsored by
COALITIONS: A PRIMER
Definition: A group of individuals coming together for a specific
purpose or goal
• Is most commonly seen in mental health/substance abuse circles
• The model we are using
• Easily modified for hunger, homelessness, etc.
Key identifier of a coalition:
• Different parts of the community come together to solve a
community problem
• Example: Underage drinking
• Solution: Social Host Ordinance Laws
5. This conference is sponsored by
COALITIONS: A PRIMER
Different “sectors”—i.e., parts—of the community come
together with their talents to promote cultural change
• Example: An individual who works in media puts together a PSA
campaign to educate potential donors/volunteers about current
challenges
• Example: Religious leaders hold a press conference to promote
their work in hunger relief
• Key: Cultural Change
• Informing the general public about the facts about hunger/poverty/etc.
6. This conference is sponsored by
COALITION MEMBERSHIP
Key #1: Define your community; this will define who needs to
be in your coalition
• At The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, our clients
determine our community
• Who/What organizations should be involved given that…
• 43% of our clients are working poor?
• 27% of our clients are SNAP recipients or are SNAP eligible?
• 40% of our clients are children?
• What organizations did we name multiple times?
• These are the core of our coalition members
• (All statistics courtesy of The Community Food Bank of Southern
Arizona)
7. This conference is sponsored by
Key #2: After brainstorming who, in general, is in your community,
refine your list
• At The Community Food Bank, we refined our list by asking “Who,
specifically, does SNAP as an elemental part of their organization?”
• Created the following list:
• Interfaith Community Services
• The Salvation Army of Southern Arizona
• Medicare Health Benefits Cooperative
• Flowing Wells Family and Community Resource Center
• University of Arizona Health and Nutrition Cooperative
• Iskashitaa Refugee Network
• Lutheran Social Services
• Catholic Social Services
COALITION MEMBERSHIP
8. This conference is sponsored by
Key #3: When reaching out to these organizations, keep their
best interests in mind
• What’s in it for them?
• University of Arizona Health and Nutrition Cooperative: Wants to
educate lower income SNAP recipients on using their benefits at
Farmer’s Markets
• Interfaith Community Services: Wants to lessen client dependence on
their services
• Flowing Wells Community and Family Resource Center: Same as
Interfaith Community Services
• Time is money
• Be on time
• Be ready to talk about the project
• Be excited!
COALITION MEMBERSHIP
9. This conference is sponsored by
COALITION ACTIVITIES
Key #4: Avoid reinventing the wheel by conducting a survey
• Also a service year requirement
• Goal: Who does what the best out of everyone?
• Answer this question with data
• The Community Food Bank, out of all our coalition members, is the best at
getting food to clients in the most rural areas
• Interfaith Community Ministries is the best at uniting the churches around
poverty prevention
• Iskashitaa is the best at reaching refugees
10. This conference is sponsored by
COALITION ACTIVITIES
Key #4: Avoid reinventing the wheel by conducting a survey
• Most (if not all) members will have their own data about their
organization
• Budget
• Clients served
• Services provided and dates of service
11. This conference is sponsored by
COALITION ACTIVITIES
Key #5: Engagement promotes commitment, resulting in
sustainability
• Put the coalition in control of its own wellbeing
• What topics do your coalition members think need to be covered?
• Example: Our coalition focuses on SNAP & SNAP Related Challenges
• When does your coalition want to meet? Where? For how long?
• Example: At The Community Food Bank, we meet the 1st Monday of the
month, at 9:30am, at The Community Food Bank
• Discussing teleconferencing/location rotation
12. This conference is sponsored by
TROUBLESHOOTING
Challenge #1: Too many cooks spoil the soup
• If too many organizations/people are involved in the coalition, at least
initially, it will not be as effective as possible
• The story of Loma Woodburn
• The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona decided, at this
moment, we would limit our coalition to SNAP & SNAP Centered
Organizations
• Allows for very specific networking
• Interfaith networking event
• Organizational networking event
• SNAP Volunteer Fair
• Keeps our discussion focused on current issues and challenges
• Policy/Procedural Changes
• Funding cutbacks/changes
13. This conference is sponsored by
TROUBLESHOOTING
Challenge #2: Keep the meeting about solutions that lead to
cultural change
• Create “House Rules of Play”
• At The Community Food Bank:
• No speechmaking
• Safe space for discussion
• Be on time
• Mindfulness and compassion
• At the first meeting, appoint a facilitator and secretary
• At The Community Food Bank:
• For this year, I am the facilitator
• Still discussing a secretary
14. This conference is sponsored by
TROUBLESHOOTING
Challenge #3: “Problem” Coalition Members
• Most common challenges
• Consistently tardy members
• Consistently on their phone
• Do not honor the rules
• Professionalism, above all else
• Don’t call these members out in the middle of the meeting
• Talk with your supervisor
• Can they talk with this member and find out what’s going
on?
15. This conference is sponsored by
TROUBLESHOOTING
Challenge #3: “Problem” Coalition Members
• Uncommon, but not unheard of, problems
• Sexual harassment
• Verbal and/or Physical Abuse
• Bullying and intimidation
• The story of Nancy Spear
• NYCCAH/VISTA/CNCS Reporting Procedures
• In the VISTA/NYCCAH handbook, it outlines the procedure
• Key points:
• Tell the person to stop
• Tell your supervisor
• Contact your VISTA Leader
• Document the incident, including any possible witnesses
16. This conference is sponsored by
TROUBLESHOOTING
Challenge #4: Losing the long term focus
• Best way to avoid this: mix in short term success with long term goals
• Ex.: The Community Food Bank decided that, for our first challenge, to work
with farmers markets
• Where are they?
• When are they?
• Which ones use SNAP?
• Coalitions are used to institute long term, cultural change
• This means that we won’t see the results of our work in the near future; we
will, however, see the results in generational, attitude changes
• Be upfront with your coalition members about this fact
• Their reaction to this gauges their commitment
Brief Resume:
4th VISTA Term
1st: Fundraiser/Grant Writer/Volunteer Manager of a food bank
2nd: VISTA Leader for The City of Goodyear Police Department
3rd: Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition Building—where I got my training for building our coalition
BA: Wright State University, Dayton, OH 2008 Theater
MA: Argosy University, Phoenix, AZ, 2014, Higher and Post Secondary Education
Courtesy of M-W dictionary
Although integrating all sectors of the community is laudable, it’s also a far reaching endeavor. Getting people to the table who actually need to be there is challenging enough without adding extraneous individuals.
How many of you were/are in sales? Who’s heard of the saying “People don’t buy things; they buy benefits?” Same thing here!
Be educated on your coalition! You can’t educate, excite or recruit if you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish. What is the long range goal here? What does success look like? Why is this partnership critical to the success of your coalition? What unique talents are these partners bringing to the table that no one else can?
Be excited about your coalition! Remember, you are selling yourself first, the coalition and the network 2nd. If you’re not excited about your work, why should anyone else be?
When writing your survey, get your coalition's input. For example, some organizations require higher-level authorization before releasing data. If that’s the case, the coalition members can tell you directly what data can and can’t be made available. Don’t argue this point; if your coalition member decides, for whatever reason, to withhold certain information, indicate on the survey analysis “Data Not Available.”
After your initial survey, keep submitting surveys to your coalition to determine satisfaction. What works in the meetings? What doesn’t? What needs to change somehow? Use your surveys to determine the effectiveness of your work. This does not mean, necessarily, that a dissatisfied coalition indicates no progress whatsoever; the fact is, coalition building is a mysterious concept, and people simply may not know what to compare their experiences to. Thus, by default, they may negatively rate an experience that is, in fact, positive.
Looking around the room at the different topics that our coalition has chosen, why do you think we chose them?
Common issues—DES Communique sheet; SNAP
Long term, partnership issues—Allows for evolving, ongoing conversation. We’re establishing relationships, remember!
Remember: Your non profit both predates and postdates you. This work has to go on without you.
Loma: Was a very proactive volunteer, donor, etc at my previous VISTA site. But because her ideas didn’t fit into the core mission of the site, she was seen as “extra,” which meant that her ideas and hopes were not included in the direction the site was headed. As a result, she felt unvalued, and stopped coming to board meetings. She also actively discouraged people from donating and volunteering at my previous VISTA site.
A few words about these specific events:
We are not inviting the public
We are specifically and personally inviting specific people—ex: churches for an interfaith networking event; retired professionals for a SNAP Volunteer fair
Everyone comes from their coalition member—i.e., ministers who are members of Interfaith Community Services
When creating the “house rules,” ask your coalition members what rules THEY are willing to abide by. For example, everyone agreed that timeliness was something important; therefore, THEY are committing to being on time.
Taking minutes holds everyone accountable for the coalition success: because we are working to achieve cultural change, we need to make sure everyone is clear on what is and isn’t correct. So, for example, if we agree that we will hold an annual workshop on SNAP and SNAP volunteerism, we need to have a record of why we felt the way we did. That way, down the road, we can gauge its effectiveness.
Nancy Spear was a significant donor and volunteer at The Amado Youth Center. As such, she expected a level of respect and deference that was not necessarily her privilege. As a result, she bullied, verbally abused, and intimidated staff, then running to our supervisor and insisting we were “uncooperative” and “uncommitted” to the project. When Nancy tried to pull the plug on MY project, I took my supervisor aside and told her the type of things Nancy was doing not just to me but to the other staff. When my supervisor found out this was true, she informed Nancy that, at the end of the year, there “would be a shift in programming focus,” which would mean that her work would either change or be cancelled. Nancy elected to let someone else do the programming.
United Community Health Cooperative was not on board with this. SNAP was not their primary focus; healthcare for the poor was. When they found out that we would not be able to remove the stigma of poverty within a 12 month span, they were uninterested in working with us.
