1. I had the privilege of working at
the City of Seattle’s Human Services Divi-
sion. My role as Community Capacity
Building Coordinator was to help organiza-
tions close gaps in reaching diverse com-
munities by becoming Assisting Partners
with the Department of Health and Hu-
man Services Washington Connection
Portal.
Working with a dynamic and
visionary Supervisor Jess Chow, Planning
and Development Specialist at the City of
Seattle Human Services Division, listened
to my desire to create a forum that would
allow a cross section of individuals from all
sectors to learn how to seek consensus face
to face. Critical thinking of shared re-
sources is essential to identifying how
collectively we should be aware of how
interdependent we were and how without
direct interaction little could be truly ac-
complished and impacted for change.
Most Sectors were unwittingly
duplicating services just a neighborhood
and in most cases one policy apart of one
another. Each doing exhaustive work with
dedicated, albeit strained staff and leaders
stretching budgets trying to address issues
with fractured information. I had the
enviable position of a macro view seeing
that what was needed most was the reali-
zation that only collectively could we dare
to resolve issues and challenges by sharing
our wealth of information and the genius
of ideas and resources among us.
Thus Partner Café was born and Collec-
tive Impact began……
In the Beginning….
Inside this issue:
Who We Are…. 2-3
Why We Care…. Next
Steps towards change
4
Inside Story 4
Inside Story 5
Inside Story 6
Partner Café
Bridging the Gap across Sectors making the case for Collective Impact
This month’s issue
In the Beginning…...
Washington Connection
Collaborative Impact
Shared Knowledge
Recognizing our Inter-
dependence
APRIL 2014 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2
Caption describ-
ing picture or
graphic.
Washington Connection….and the ACA
The online DSHS Community Ser-
vice Division hosted portal connects indi-
viduals to state, city and federal benefits,
programs and services. It offers a holistic
one-stop shop that goes beyond what is
politically referred to as government enti-
tlements to actual resources for stability.
Unknown to many, individuals
can find links to a wide variety of services;
employment, education, child-care, legal,
long-term care, and housing as well as
support for Native Americans and Medi-
care Savings programs.
Organizations encouraged to
“partner” with DSHS as Assisting Agen-
cies fostered by close ties to their commu-
nities directly impacted while surfacing a
need for true “relationship.”
DSHS Community Service division’s
clearly understand that community relation-
ships strengthens an organizations ability to
reach out and make lasting differences not
always driven by empirical data.
With the roll out of the Affordable Care
Act many Agencies became “Lead Organiza-
tions” through the Health Care Authority
which uniquely positioned the Community
Services division to serve on the front line
connecting and restoring families across
the state to concrete sustainable opportuni-
ties’ ability to focus on bottom lines for
change and measurable progress.

2. KiKu Hayashi, Com-
munity Activist. Food Bank @
St Mary’s, Metropolitan Democ-
ratic Club, Board Member Japa-
nese American Citizens League..
Michael Twiggs,
President & CEO, Twiggs &
Associates, Inc.-The Garden of
Eden an innovative approach to
urban farming, creating a holistic
approach to food access- nutri-
tion policy offering better com-
Rebecca Larsen, Case
Manager-Childcare Resources
is a private, non-profit child care
resource and referral (CCR&R)
agency that works with families
and communities to ensure that
all children have access to high
quality, affordable early learning
and school-age opportunities
and experiences that enable
them to succeed in school and in
life.
munity health, ecological integ-
rity, food education, skills train-
ing and job creation. Currently,
COO at Maxine Mimms
Academies
Paul Valenti, Em-
ployment Counselor—Mayor’s
Office Senior Center- free-
lance & contract writing -United
States Army, Microsoft, City of
Seattle, the Valenti Print Group,
the University of Washington
Dream Project & private clients
Who We Are…..to name a few
United Way of King County
John Pope, Program
Supervisor at OSPI—Office of
Superintendent of Public In-
struction.-OSPI is the primary
agency charged with overseeing
K-12 public education in Wash-
ington state. John works with
the state’s 295 school districts to
administer basic education pro-
grams and implement education
reform on behalf of more than
one million public school stu-
dents. OSPI is housed in the
Old Capitol Building in Olym-
pia.
Tania Rzhoudrovska,
Immigration Assistance (Russian
& Ukraine) St. James Cathe-
dral "While we do not support
illegal immigration we are com-
mitted to helping all persons
regardless of their legal status...
Our goal as a community of
disciples is comprehensive immi-
gration reform to provide legal
pathways for family reunifica-
tion, guest workers and those
seeking citizenship.
Lynette Juska, Pro-
gram Manager Employment Ser-
vices, ENSO offers state of the
art employment supports for
people throughout the state of
Washington by using an indi-
vidualized planning process,
choice in design of individual-
ized supports/implementation
strategies, and personalized re-
source department. Learn more
about ENSO.
Louis Mendoza, Vol-
unteer Initiatives Manager at
Jess Chow, Planning &
Development Specialist-City of
Seattle Human Services Division
and co-creator of Partner Café.
Trena Cloyd has been
the Airport Jobs Program Man-
ager since 2007. She has devoted
over 25 years in the Hospitality,
Human Resources, and Customer
Service industries. Her passion
has always been about helping
others from all walks of life, and
then knowing that she and her
team have made a positive out-
come in the lives of their clients
and job seekers that come
through their doors in both the
Airport Jobs and Airport Univer-
sity programs .
www.airportjobs.org
Jesus Bervis “It only
takes a moment to make some-
one’s day, or even change some-
one’s life. I discovered that a few
years ago. I was working as a
volunteer interpreter one day
when a client came into the doc-
tor’s office to get prenatal care. I
was surprised to see her crying
and saying I was not expecting to
have someone able to understand
me. The doctor was able to help
her and the eligibility specialist
there was able to enroll her in
Medicaid. That day not only
changed that young lady’s life but
mine as well. I have been with
NeighborCare Health’s Eligi-
bility Team as their Manager ever
since. “
Ty Ahlquist, Per-
formance and Quality Manager-
DSHS Community Services
Division provides programs to
support the Mission of the De-
partment of Social and Health
Services. When we provide ser-
vices, we work diligently to
honor Our Commitment to our
Customers.
Karl Allison, CSO
Administrator-State of Washing-
ton. Karl oversees DSHS CSO
offices in King and Snohomish
County.
Patti Bowers, M.S.
TESOL, International Diversity
Multi-Cultural Bilingual
(Spanish) Specialist Washing-
ston State Public Schools.
Page 2
PARTNER CAFÉ
Participants & partners
City of Seattle– HSD
NeighborCare Health
Port Jobs
King County Health
DSHS-Community Services
division
Center-Stone
Community for Youth
United Way of King County
Childcare Resources Inc
Global-to-local
Mayors Office Senior
Center
St James Cathedral
Multicultural Families
Keep It Clean –K.I.C.
Unleash the Brilliance
Catholic Community
Services
Apprisen Financial Service
UW School of Nursing
Solid-Ground
ENSO
Seattle Goodwill
Race & Social Justice
Initiative

3. Felicia Yearwood,
Civil Rights Attorney—Advance
Justice
Clarence Gunn, La-
bor Relations Specialist/
Community Organizer.
Kathy Tan, DSHS
Washington Connection Com-
munity Access Consultant
Sharon Dizer, Case
Manager at Seattle Goodwill.
Enrique Cardenas,
20 yr. Army Vet-Youth Leader
and Administrative Manager
Raquel Stewart, Au-
thor/ Reiki Practitioner
Kelly Perkins, Manag-
ing Director, West Coast Opera-
tions at Apprisen Financial
ticultural and cross-generational
world and by acknowledging and
coming to terms with our inter-
dependence we can all share the
blessing of opportunities made
possible through intentional
inclusion and open communica-
tion.
I have made it my life's
purpose to seek , find and ac-
knowledge individual's gifts and
then connect their abilities and
talent to others so that they can
identify challenges, learn to work
across ideologies and design
methods and share ideas towards
productive solutions.
We are a
Global Village and by remaining
teachable we are able to live our
best lives in a diverse commu-
nity, uniquely qualified to ad-
dress issues that affect all of us
and become willing to work
together towards solving them.
Collective Impact-true synergy and vision-changing how we get things done
“Large-scale social
change requires broad cross-
sector coordination, yet the so-
cial sector remains focused on
the isolated intervention of indi-
vidual organizations.”
“Substantially greater
progress could be made in allevi-
ating many of our most serious
and complex social problems if
nonprofits, governments, busi-
nesses, and the public were
brought together around a com-
mon agenda to create collective
impact.”
Published in
the Stanford
Social Inno-
vation Re-
view, Winter
2011. By
John Kania
& Mark
Kramer
We
live in an
amazingly
intricate mul-
Page 3
PARTNER CAFÉ ……..
City of Seattle Office of
Emergency Management
Office of Superintendent
Public instruction –OSPI
WA health Benefit
Exchange
Within Reach
Pike Market Senior
Center
Bread of Life Mission
Aloha Inn
Somalie Center
ACRS
UW School of Social
Work
Seed of Life
Techno-access
Seattle University
Jewish Family Services
Consejo Counseling
Vivian heller, Human
Resource and Sales
professional
Enrique Cardenas, 20
year Army Vet
John Willoughby,
Counselor-Score Chapter 143,
Wichita, Kansas-30+ years of
college administration & teach-
ing 20 years of Success Motiva-
tion Inc/Leadership Manage-
ment International sales/
counseling
Ruthie Stark-
Redman, Program Manager
Lake County NAACP-Ohio
Lemmell Brown,
CEO & Patent Holder-KIC
(Keep it Clean) medical device
covers. “Life is an accumulation
of experiences that move us
from where we were to where
we are. How you make the jour-
ney is a testament of who you
are. Arriving does not determine
your character; it's a testament to
your tenacity.”
Vivian Heller,
Social and Community Ser-
vice Specialist “My passion is
implementing Education
along with Social Services to
create a successful environ-
ment for all people with nu-
merous barriers. I have a
strong belief that with the
two of these joined anyone
can accomplish their goals”

4. I didn’t start Partner Café-Bridging the Gap across Sectors with a
clear vision of how it would operate and what the logistics would have to be to
address what I saw as an over accumulation of well intentioned organizations
and government agencies working in well-designed vacuums. All I knew for
sure was that the very people each existed because of, and yes organizations,
government agencies, institutions across all sectors exist for the sole purpose
or illusion there of, of making life a better place for its people, or at least that is
the intention direct or in-direct as it may be by creating products and services to be used by and for people.
Yet, year after year many of the same problems and challenges not only remain but have gotten
progressively worse. No amount of money, MBA”s doctorates or years of tacit knowledge seems to have
put a dent in the basic challenges of providing people with equal access to value when it comes to services
and opportunities upon which they could build a stable life for themselves and their families. Some will
argue that it is up to the individual to make a decent life for themselves and I certainly would agree, to a
point. But for the vast majority decent is relative and changes per zip code, culture, genders and age.
I may not have the answers yet, but this one thing I know, we need to have all sectors engaged
in actual collaborative communication and execution derived from a consensus of coordinated planning
in which each brings to the table the single focus of working as a unit towards a shared goal, one project at
a time. Below is a excerpt on Channeling Change: “Making Collective Impact Work” by Fay Hanley-
Brown, John Kania, & Mark Kramer Jan. 26 2012.
The writers wrote that five key conditions had to exist in order to distinguish collective impact
from other types of collaboration: I have adopted them as Partner Café’s guiding principles as we grow...
A common agenda, All participants have a shared vision for change including a common understanding
of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through agreed upon actions
Shared measurement, Collecting data and measuring results consistently across all participants ensures
efforts remain aligned and participants hold each other accountable
Mutually reinforcing activities, Participant activities must be differentiated while still being coordinated
through a mutually reinforcing plan of action
Continuous communication , Consistent and open communication is needed across the many players to
build trust, assure mutual objectives and create common motivation
The presence of a backbone organization. Creating and managing collective impact requires a separate
organization (s) with staff and a specific set of skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative and
coordinate participating organizations and agencies
This is a huge order for the most polished organization. But it is in my humble opinion that the
only way forward in accomplishing change and addressing disparities' that affects all of us whether directly
or indirectly is to work collectively and transparently together.
We each come with a unique set of innate talents and far too many of our people have had their
voices prematurely silenced because our vision is narrow and ideologically tainted. When I spoke to my
then Supervisor Jess Chow about what I saw, we were neck deep in completing a “Logic Model” for bet-
ter cross communication and effectiveness. Our reality was that on a floor that housed no less than five
departments, no one was sharing information. Few of us knew what the other actually did and we surely
weren't aware of the data that would have saved time and money when addressing issues that affected the
very people we were all there to serve.
Partner Café-Bridging the Gap across Sectors may not be for everyone, but everyone exists and
depends on a cross section of all sectors working together to create sustainable opportunities...I often say
that if any one of us were truly doing our jobs to eliminate today's problems, we would measure our suc-
cess by the fact that we would be committed to working ourselves out of a job and moving on to the next
challenge-problem-issue.
Cheri D Coleman
Phone: 253-988-1703
Home: 253-985-1732
E-mail: Cherid615@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/
Partner-CafeBridging-Gap-across-
Sectors-5100898?trk=my_groups-b
Bridging the gap…..steps toward Change...
together,
we can do
amazing things...
serving the world,
Collectively Impacting
our neighborhoods
One conversation at a
time............
Find us on
Linkedin! Partner
Café-Bridging the
Gap across
Sectors
Cheri D Coleman, Founder &
CEO Partner Café-Bridging the
Gap across Sectors’
3215 71ST AVE Ct W #206
University Place, WA 98466
Cultures coming together
to create change-one con-
versation at a time….