Communities of HOPE - Executive Summary

Transcription

1 Building Communities of Hope

2 Communities of HOPE - Executive Summary Transforming Low-income, Government-subsidized Housing into Highly-supportive Communities for Healthy Living, Educational Success, Financial Security and Quality Relationships Communities of HOPE is a holistic program for social change starting in the metro Detroit area. A great deal of time has been invested in the past year to craft an innovative and powerful strategy that is now ready to be implemented. Our vision is that the program will also be quickly replicated in Oakland, California, demonstrating the scalability of the program and refining the details of replicating the program in other cities. The program addresses the root causes of some of the biggest challenges facing our nation today, all of which are particularly concentrated and intertwined in an urban cycle of poverty in government affordable apartment communities. These key problem areas include: Preventable chronic diseases (diabetes, heart disease, etc.); Overall poor health for low-income populations; Low high school graduation rates; Poverty and economic hardship; Substance abuse and smoking; Isolation and poor relationships; Crime and gang activity; In order to effectively combat these large social issues the program is based on several new and unique innovations that address both root causes and intertwined factors in order to create a holistic approach. Some of the key innovations include: Transforming the property management firms to take on a role of coordinating and supporting the development of strong, supportive communities that help their residents improve their lives and collectively create a positive culture to sustain the changes; Leveraging the property management firm s existing assets (buildings, communication, concentration of residents, information, purchasing power, etc.) that can greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the programs of other non-profit organizations; Engaging the residents in an organized way to actively participate in the co-creation of a positive community for them to live, leveraging their talents and cooperation by providing mechanisms for people to be able to help each other and the apartment community; Leveraging state-of-the-art strategic management tools and technologies that bridge the gap between a bold vision and the myriad of details that go into the execution of the strategy for achieving that vision, enabling much more effective engagement of a broad spectrum of organizations and individuals; Establishing innovative cooperative food purchasing and delivery programs to overcome current destructive equilibrium with regard to food purchasing practices where low-income individuals depend on food stamp programs to purchase foods, yet they live in food deserts where the primary stores that accept food stamps are liquor stores, gas stations, convenience stores, dollar stores or other fringe retailers that typically sell very unhealthy food; Providing low income families and seniors with cutting-edge, scientifically-designed nutritional products (at affordable prices) that can replace junk food in the diets of residents, thereby improving their ability to perform in school, work and life, enhancing their well-being, and reducing the occurrence of both current and long-term health problems;

3 Developing an internal economy based on blending financial management training, micro-entrepreneurship (with on-site shared business centers, mentoring and marketing support), asset-building programs, gainsharing, and other innovations to help residents increase their financial security and self-sufficiency; Establishing relationships with private and charter schools in order to create reinforcing environments that help create a culture that supports educational success both at school and at home; Changing the unhealthy equilibrium where property management firms typically respond to HUD programs in ways that waste resources, isolate residents, diminish the quality of life, and destroy rather than create value; Harnessing mass collaboration through the use of leading-edge strategic management tools and technologies to align the efforts of many non-profit and government organizations whose current efforts are seriously undermined by fragmentation and unnecessary duplication. The initial work in Detroit should improve the lives of several thousand people in over 25 apartment communities managed by Premier Property Management, LLC. (PPM). As property management firms, non-profit organizations and government agencies copy successful practices of this model around the country, the impact can truly transform the state of affordable housing in the United States. Insightformation s work with Communities of HOPE and Premier Property Management, LLC Insightformation is engaged at multiple levels in this effort. They are leading a Community Balanced Scorecardbased approach for Communities of HOPE that is engaging a growing number of public, not-for-profit, faith-based, and private organizations and well as foundations and volunteers. At the same time, Insightformation is actively engaged in the dramatic transformation of Premier Property Management company (PPM), since their transformation is key to achieving the broader social goals included in the Communities of HOPE effort. The Four Strategic Themes for Communities of HOPE Communities of HOPE are built around Four Strategic Themes

4 These four Strategic Themes establish the high-level priorities for change. Each of the Strategic Themes has four Levers of Change which make up the primary framework around which more detailed strategy maps are being crafted. The ground-breaking concept of a Community Balanced Scorecard is being used to engage partners in defining strategy maps for each of the 16 Levers of Change. These strategy maps address specific ways that the Levers of Change can be implemented to achieve the strategic themes. The process of developing the strategy maps helps to identify and develop ways of overcoming obstacles and will serve as a structure for breaking down major issues into specific objectives that different organizations can address. The logic of the strategy map supported by the 3- dimensional cascading capabilities of the InsightVision software can allow for strategic alignment among many different organizations, mutual accountability, and strategic performance management. TEAM Synergy One of the core values that underlies the strategic transformation at all levels is TEAM Synergy where TEAM stands for Together, Everyone Accomplishes More. Insightformation and PPM actively look for potential partner organizations where they can take programs that have worked separately and combine them for a multiplied impact. For example, we re working with Gleaners Community Food Bank, an established community food bank that provides training on a blend of nutrition, cooking and shopping to help low-income families improve their eating habits. They currently serve hundreds of people each year, but as part of this collaborative effort, they now plan to serve thousands, as the programs will be brought on-site at the PPM-managed properties which will provide remodeled training facilities right in the apartment communities where people live. The programs will be further enhanced through cooperative food purchasing where the healthy foods advocated by the training will be purchased at wholesale prices, electronically ordered from a partnering food wholesaler (or directly from Michigan farmers), and

5 delivered to the apartment properties. This PPM-led effort will make it easy for residents to purchase healthy foods at low prices, using their Bridge Cards (food stamps). In addition, volunteers, coordinated by HOPE worldwide s Michigan branch, will help teams of individuals and families work together to improve health and eating patterns. HOPE worldwide s volunteers are also leading a program for on-site, rooftop and near-site vegetable gardens, enabling people to grow their own healthy food. These types of factors will not only allow this community food bank to serve several times as many people with their successful program, it will also significantly reduce the cost per person it serves. This improved efficiency, combined with the added effectiveness that will come from leveraging the supporting programs, should enhance Gleaner s Community Food Bank s ability to attract additional funding. Examples of TEAM Synergy are growing week by week. When a foundation dedicated to improving the dental health of youth learned of Communities of HOPE and offered free dental care to all the PPM residents under age 18, it was a win for them, since they could reach more youth in a coordinated manner with less administrative overhead. PPM had previously identified a lack of motivation to participate in health and wellness programs as a key obstacle to accomplishing some of the objectives in the Healthy Living theme, so they decided to leverage the foundation s offer as an incentive, and promote the free dental insurance for youth as a reward for those families that engaged in at least the initial steps of the PPM community-wide healthy living programs. By coming together in a deliberate, strategic manner, the combination of the two programs was worth more than the sum of the two programs independently. These are just a few of a large number of synergies that are being orchestrated through the use of Strategy-Aligned Management (SAM) and strategy mapping techniques. Using Strategy Maps based on the Community Balanced Scorecard Model The process of strategy mapping and cascading significantly aids the ability to bring multiple organizations together. When viewing a strategy map, for example, the president of Gleaner s Community Food Bank was able to identify two other areas where he either had programs or was working to develop programs that would support our overall efforts. Seeing the strategy map allowed him to expand his support for our efforts in ways that would have otherwise gone undetected. When leaders and organizations can clearly see how they fit in with a larger overall plan, they are often more motivated to add their resources and efforts to contribute to the TEAM effort. When people first hear of what we re doing to help break the cycle of poverty in Detroit, they typically feel overwhelmed by the complexity. After they have seen an example strategy map and learn how the InsightVision software can manage the complex web of objectives, measures and initiatives, the effort then seems much more realistic and manageable. The Community Balanced Scorecard concept, pioneered by Paul Epstein and Lyle Wray, co-authors of the book Results that Matter and creators of the Effective Community Governance model, provides structure for how each Strategic Theme can be successfully executed. Rather than focus on any one organization, these strategy maps look at the community-wide problem and structure the perspectives to help map out the strategy of how obstacles can be overcome to achieve the desired community outcomes. The following is an example of a cascaded strategy map for Healthy Eating, one of the integrated Levers of Change for executing the strategic theme of Healthy Living. This map is shown in InsightVision software s interactive strategy map view.

6 Each of these strategy map bubbles represents a strategic objective, and they are linked by arrows that reflect a cause & effect logic. The use of InsightVision software allows the execution not only to be mapped out and managed in a two-dimensional (2D) manner, as displayed on a typical strategy map, but it also supports three-dimensional (3D) relationships where the causal drivers are on increasingly-detailed, cascaded strategy maps. So, for example, on a cascaded strategy map and scorecard for HOPE worldwide Michigan, there will be more detailed objectives on how they will support some of the objectives on the Strategy Map displayed above. In addition to having more specific objectives (with measures and initiatives) to support the Launch HOPE worldwide Gardens and Build strong relationships with Community Garden Organizations, for example, they may have their own internal process objectives for Efficiently Manage Community Volunteers that supports the Develop Community Garden Program on this map. Other organizations, such as Motor City Blight Busters, may have their own cascaded objective for Transform Vacant Lots into Gardens. With the help of the InsightVision software, the cascading creates a line of sight so different organizations have greater clarity on how they contribute to the desired community outcomes, like Reducing Health Problems and Chronic Disease. InsightVision allows documents that describe key details for each objective, called InfoSheets, to be linked to one another. With one click, users can learn more about each Objective.

7 Once the strategy maps are defined, performance measures, targets and strategic initiatives can be added all managed in InsightVision. This creates a powerful Balanced Scorecard-based Strategic Management System. The InsightVision software provides a framework and tool for tracking performance measures, progress on specific strategic initiatives and other valuable capabilities that support the management of strategy execution. Use of Technology to Support Collaboration In addition to having InsightVision as a central tool to manage progress, the team working on the Communities of HOPE project is leveraging many other supporting technologies, including Basecamp (for collaboration, communication and file sharing), Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google Maps (for Mapping and light GIS work), Microsoft Live Meeting (for frequent Web-conferences), and on-line survey tools. All these tools allow our distributed team of consultants, non-profit, for-profit and government participants to efficiently and effectively engage in efforts to make rapid progress toward strategy execution. Early Results The first area for results to be evident has been in the radical transformation of the culture of Premier Property Management, LLC. The change of culture was seen as an essential driver of the other changes in both the community and corporate strategy maps that define the Communities of HOPE strategy. Within several days of launching the new strategy to the entire company (beyond the Theme Team members that had helped to develop the Theme strategy maps), employees engaged in a dramatic volunteer effort to clean, paint and landscape two of the properties most in need of help. The following excerpt is from an sent from the regional manager overseeing those properties: You all have taken the Four Star and Premier Service philosophy to a new level by this singular act. Midtown is indeed looking good!!! As you all witnessed, Angela [the property manager] was shocked beyond words.

8 Bob Beale, the President of Premier Property Management, replied, It is exciting to see the changes taking place in the minds and hearts of the people as they internalize this vision to become something personal. For More Information, Contact Robert Beale at x205