Day 1: Community Engagement, Getting on the Bus, and Community Indicators
The first day of the conference presented several interesting opportunities to expand our understanding of the issues community foundations face. After a nice dinner with fantastic oysters at Bourbon House the previous night, we were well prepared for the first day’s options. Because I am attending the conference as a member of the community rather than staff of the foundation, my lens is that of someone who wants to see how best to help my neighbors and peers work within the constraints that foundations face. But as a former program evaluator, my role is colored by an interest in data. So it was great to see a session on “real” community engagement AND a session on data in the same day.
In the first session (Beyond Grants: Strengthening Communities Through More Community Engagement), the CF Leads representative talked about (finally, in my opinion) going past faux grassroots to actual residents of communities. In some ways, as one of the “usual suspects” myself, I can relate to being one of the people who isn’t typically supposed to be the ultimate beneficiary of our foundation’s efforts. So it was interesting to engage in a rich discussion about how to get past usual suspects and gatekeepers to the actual people in our neighborhoods. The idea was, essentially, that there is a difference between reaching the people you want to help and reaching their surrogates.
Alandra Washington, a representative of the Kellogg Foundation, spoke directly: Authenticity is critical, she said. It is important to genuinely meet and engage communities "where they are," and to do that foundations must go beyond the interests of donors. This can be uncomfortable for some, but is critical to developing trust.
At the luncheon plenary, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, made several interesting points about the nature of civic engagement and how it is shaping the political landscape. Perhaps the two most interesting were a bit ironic. First, he said the Tea Party and Occupy movements were essentially creatures of the same distrust and disaffection of large government structures. Although the concerns manifest differently for each group, it is definitely true that in some sense both are “engaged” communities. The second was a humorous anecdote about how the talking heads cable networks only stop yelling polarizing things at one another long enough to decry the extensive polarization in the country. His point that more people are being driven away from political engagement because of this polarization was a good one.
I couldn’t possibly recap the afternoon session, “Community Indicator Reports: How Data Supports Action and Affects Branding,” but here are a few highlights and links to useful materials:
Mary Thomas of the Spartanburg County Foundation talked about data and community indicators. She focused on the benefit her community has derived from having indicators and a team of organizations to help focus on the issues. She also highlighted creative ways for the team to work together, including the need to develop a new brand to help the partners share successes.
Mary Jo Meisner of The Boston Foundation led in her presentation with the great quote: “In God we trust, all others must bring data,” by W. Edward Deming. Her focus was on the Boston Indicators Project.
She was engaged in the democratization of data, which is great from my perspective because it can open up the conversation to more participants and potentially create a new “table” at which foundations and community groups can sit as peers, rather than giver and recipient. Meisner also described an exciting new website that will use Weave (open-source software featured here) so anyone can use data. It wasn’t immediately clear how broad the “anyone” in this scenario was going to be, but the more access the better, in my opinion.
The Boston Foundation’s work also led to a report about the dramatic rise in municipal employee health benefits, which led to passage of key state legislation. According to the presenter, and this press release, the new municipal health-reform law saved $178 million in one year. Her presentation showed a truly powerful example of how community foundation work can drive not just local community engagement but also be the basis for important civic change.
Many other impressive points were made during the session, and I hope to engage others who attended to carry some of these examples back to support community efforts in San Diego as well. These sessions typified the type of healthy exchange that this conference makes possible.
Omar Passons is a San Diego construction attorney and community activist who sits on the leadership committee of the San Diego Foundation’s Center for Civic Engagement. You can follow him on Twitter @omarpassons.
