A 2004 community needs assessment conducted by WSU Tri-Cities for United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties revealed that Benton and Franklin Counties needs better linkages and coordination among local health and human service providers. The Community Leaders Summit was held in October 2006 at which time the foundation for Community Solutions was established. United Way was asked by community leaders and donors to facilitate this process. The first cut of the Community Solutions Plan was developed in 2007 through a wide-scale community planning process involving 200 community leaders and residents in the bi-county area with the purpose of improving community conditions and people’s lives.
Health and human services affect every individual in Benton and Franklin Counties. Progress towards achieving the Plan’s outcomes and ultimately realizing the vision can only occur through comprehensive community engagement and participation by all.
200 community leaders, representing all segments of the community, devoted over 1,000 hours in 2007 to collecting, exchanging and analyzing information about health and human services. Their hard work, expertise and passion culminated in the development of the first-ever Community Solutions Plan in December 2007.
The Community Solutions Plan is outlined in the form of a strategy map and was developed by starting at the top with the identification of the vision and major outcomes and then working downward with identification of the essential community processes, behaviors and actions that need to be in place. The Plan is implemented from the bottom upward realizing that strong community processes, behaviors and actions are essential for achievement of the outcomes and ultimately the vision.
Improve people’s lives by creating lasting change in community conditions.
What needs to be accomplished to achieve the ultimate Community Solutions Vision?
1. Self Sufficiency: People will have access to basic needs such as food and housing, and individuals who are able to work are self-sufficient through gainful employment with livable wages and other assets.
2. Education: People will have access to and benefit from early education, high school graduation, basic skills training, post-high school education and life-long learning.
3. Health: People will live healthy lives through emphasis on prevention, as well as access to needed healthcare.
4. Safety: People will be safe in their homes, schools and neighborhoods, and live in a community free of abuse, neglect, violence, and crime.
What essential processes must the community excel at to achieve the outcomes and ultimately the vision?
To deliver the Plan’s outcomes, the community must excel at four community processes:
1. Regional Planning – Emphasis on Prevention and Root Causes
Addressing the underlying causes of our community’s health and human service problems is critical. Two hundred community leaders, representing a broad cross-section of the bi-county region, are convening to effectively address local issues by identifying community solutions that will create lasting change in community conditions to improve people’s lives.
2. Resources Structured for Effectiveness and Efficiency
It is essential that financial and non-financial resources be identified and leveraged in a manner that results in increased effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of health and human services. More significant impact can then occur in responding to unmet and emerging needs, as well as addressing the wide-array of issues that currently exist.
3. Formation of Partnerships and Strategic Alliances
New and emerging community-wide alliances and partnerships between organizations, programs, government entities, policy makers, etc. should be formed when appropriate. Strategic alliances foster cooperation, increase benefits to recipients and avoid duplication and unnecessary competition.
4. Availability/Awareness of Community Resources
Community resources must be available and accessible to all individuals through a highly coordinated health and human services system in which community organizations collaborate and communicate so that limited resources are used effectively and efficiently.
Strong community processes will result in an increased likelihood that the community will deliver on the intended outcomes and realize the vision.
What needs to be changed or strengthened to achieve the community processes above?
To support the essential processes, there are key behaviors and actions that must occur:
1. Education about Local Needs
Education among community organizations, businesses, government, persons needing services, volunteers and all other stakeholders regarding local needs and issues is critical to promoting understanding and compassion.
2. Wide-Scale Collaboration and Mobilization
Collaborative approaches are crucial to the success and sustainability of community change efforts because they reduce duplication of services, provide integrated services, help achieve program outcomes and decrease costs. Efforts should be made to pool resources, embrace best practices and proven success, while encouraging ingenuity and innovation to address unmet needs.
3. Communication and Coordination among Service Providers
Multiple forms of communication among services providers are needed and should be developed to insure cooperation, effective and efficient planning and implementation of selected strategies and to avoid duplication.
4. Diversity and Inclusiveness
The community values diversity as an asset and must seek to fully integrate and engage all groups in creating and supporting initiatives that embrace inclusiveness. No human resource should be untapped or wasted because of prejudice based on race, age, gender, religion, disability and sexual orientation.
5. Promotion of Community Involvement
All people should be inspired and have the opportunity to participate and share their talents in the vast abundance and variety of community services.
Effective community behaviors and actions will result in strong community processes, which therefore result in outcomes and the vision being achieved.
The entire community owns the Community Solutions Plan and has a responsibility for implementing it. Health and human services affect every individual in Benton and Franklin Counties. Progress towards achieving the outcomes and ultimately realizing the vision can only occur through the full involvement and participation by everyone. The following are examples of actions that each of us can do:
All forms of media are utilized at regular intervals to inform and engage the community regarding efforts being made in achieving objectives and long-term outcomes.
Community Solutions Team Members meet monthly to work on Plan implementation. Blue Ribbon Advisors meet periodically to review the work of the teams and provide input and guidance. The Plan will be modified as needed to maintain its relevance and effectiveness.