Starting a Fire, to Improve Health

“If a community wants to bring organizations together to carry out a project to improve health, what’s the most effective way to get action started?”

A member of the audience asked that question, after I delivered a talk at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on the day after Election Day. I had described some of the results from national research conducted by Wilder Research and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis that examined collaboration between the health and community development sectors in the United States. My talk and a related panel discussion were hosted by Health Affairs, who brought together several authors from their November 2014 issue, Collaborating for Community Health, to shed light on new strategies, partnerships, and measurement tools that show great promise for addressing the health needs of our communities.

Why is this important? Because your health and my health depend on much more than medical care. The condition of our bodies, the illnesses we get, and even how long we live depend largely on the social determinants of health. These social determinants include our housing, our income, the availability of nutritious food, air quality, the level of crime in our neighborhood, facilities to promote physical activity, and other aspects of our environment. In short, health care leaders have come to recognize that many of the factors that lead to illness, or promote good health, lie outside of the health care system.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, who heads the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, recognized that both the health and community development sectors devote significant attention to achieving better health for all by addressing these social determinants. However, they have traditionally worked in their own spheres, with little to no collaboration. She promoted a national movement (including The Commission to Build a Healthier America) to align their efforts.

A few years ago, Wilder Research teamed up with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to support this movement. We carried out national research to explore current collaboration between the health and community development sectors, to identify factors that underlie successful cross-sector initiatives, to identify obstacles that prevent successful efforts, and to determine how to best support additional collaboration.

So, back to the question, “What’s the most effective way to get action started?” I pointed to “leadership.” When members of a community recognize the importance of addressing social determinants of health and when they understand the increased effectiveness of working together rather than separately – that provides the fuel for cross-sector collaboration. The fire ignites from the spark of a person or some organization who reaches out to unfamiliar partners who share similar goals and invites them to sit at the same table and work jointly.

Do successful collaborations occur now, and how do you increase the quality and quantity of that work? Some of the most interesting findings from our research, included in an article in the most recent issue of Health Affairs, were:

·         In most parts of the U.S., health and community development organizations have begun to work with one another to collaborate to improve health.

·         To date, this work is limited; much opportunity exists for expanding these efforts.

·         Organizations within the health and community development sectors continue to lack a full understanding of one another’s activities; they also lack understanding of the roles one another can play in community health initiatives. For example, public health agencies rarely think of community development finance institutions as potential sources of health information for people who need care, but they could make such information available to people who use their services.

·         Initiatives to improve health seek better measures, to understand their accomplishments and to develop strategies for improvement. Standard, commonly-accepted measures of success do not currently exist. As Risa Lavizzo-Mourey has also said, “You can’t improve what you do not measure.”

Another audience member asked a question you might expect on the day after Election Day: “What implications do election results around the country have for cross-sector collaboration to improve health?” I suggested that cross-sector collaboration is non-political and can appeal to individuals across the political spectrum. Public officials who want to promote effectiveness and greater access to health care can see collaboration as a means for influencing social determinants of health and improving services for those in need. Public officials who want to reduce cost and promote efficiency can see collaboration as a means for leveraging limited dollars for greater impact.

We look forward to continued participation in this movement to improve the health of all residents of our communities.

We can't shape effective community action in a vacuum

Police have a racist predisposition to shoot black males – true or false? Do we have any evidence to know the extent to which this statement has validity? Sadly enough, we do not, contends Michael Wines, whose recent column in the New York Times noted that statistics which could support or refute the contention that police shootings unfairly target blacks “do not exist. And because of that, the current national debate over the role of race in police killings is being conducted more or less in a vacuum.”

While not a criminologist, I did attempt to search for data on the prevalence of shootings, including homicides, by police in the United States. Academic and government statistics provide little insight. More than 20 years ago, the federal Office of Justice Programs noted the absence of data on police use of deadly force and called for a national reporting system. Such a system never evolved; sound data about shootings by the police does not seem to exist.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported, as did Wines, on one of the few credible studies of the topic. Interestingly, in Wines’ view, the St. Louis study revealed something counterintuitive: that black police officers shared participation, in proportion to their numbers in the department, in the homicides of black male suspects. Nothing to change the assumption that racism plays a role, but the study results suggest that simple-minded thinking about black and white might not sufficiently address a serious social problem, which Wines labels “the plague of shootings of black men by white police officers.”

Please note that I do not offer an opinion about the Ferguson situation. The shooting of an unarmed teenager seems immoral; no conclusive evidence has yet emerged to justify the use of lethal force and the death of Michael Brown. We will see what develops.

However, the attempt to discuss, understand, and address that shooting in Ferguson raises a larger concern: the need to shape our thinking and make decisions about social issues and social programs based on sound information, rather than acting in a vacuum where myths and inaccuracies can all too easily lead us down the wrong path.

That’s why, at Wilder Research, we engage in work that can drive thinking, resources, and policies in the most productive and humane direction. For example:

• That’s why we work in the field of education, partnering with others in Generation Next and the Promise Neighborhoods, for example, to identify empirically what our children throughout the community need and what works and doesn't work for improving their academic success. Progress requires initially building upon what we know with confidence, then exploring different approaches, experimenting to see what works, and continuing to build on our successes.

• That’s why we partnered with several foundations and the State of Minnesota to determine the value of supportive housing. Anecdotes had previously implied how it worked; but with a systematic study, we could illuminate the strengths and limitations of supportive housing. We could provide guidance and a baseline for improvement.

• That’s why we partnered with the Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging to study informal caregivers in the Twin Cities (family members, friends, neighbors who care for aging people) and learn the ways in which those caregivers might be better served through available resources.

A new and exciting study for the state of Minnesota will examine long-term supports and services for older adults, people with disabilities, adults with long-term mental health needs, and children with long-term mental health needs in all 87 counties of the state, in order to identify gaps that need remedying. Policymakers will have the opportunity to allocate resources best aligned with needs.

Our communities need information, insight, and wisdom – of practical significance, to make the best possible choices (even if sometimes difficult and wrenching) about how to shape policies and allocate resources. But also at a higher level, we need sound understanding, based in facts rather than myths, prejudices, and stereotypes, to live out our values and achieve our aspirations for an optimal and equitable quality of life for all people.

Prairie Home Companion, Wilder Research

Prairie Home Companion recently celebrated its 40th Anniversary with special events and a national broadcast at Macalester College. The program has grown successfully since its first broadcast which included an audience of very few people four decades ago. I did not have tickets for the two evenings of performances, but I sat just outside the fence, with a decent view of the stage and the ability to hear all that occurred.

I wondered: What ingredients make for the success of a program (radio or other), or for the success of an initiative, or for the success of any organization, for-profit, government, or nonprofit? What lessons might Prairie Home Companion have for Wilder Research? How could those lessons help us in our continuous effort to improve and increase our impact on the community? What parallels exist between the development of this radio program and the development of Wilder Research which grew from just a couple of staff , at about the same time that Garrison Keillor brought Prairie Home Companion to the airwaves 40 years ago, to the almost 100 staff that we have today?

For the radio program, several ingredients seem immediately evident:

Creativity. Garrison Keillor, his producers, writers, and others have continually looked for new ways to entertain and to meet the needs of their audience.

Commitment to a mission. The regular and guest performers sought to entertain, but, also to educate and enlighten.
Persistence. Not everything worked the first time; listenership did not blossom immediately; sometimes the performance venues had many empty seats. Nonetheless, the show carried on over the years to build a following.

Quality. All who play a role in the production strive to create the best performances, again and again.

Team work. The show depends on many. Some have greater visibility, but, especially in viewing a production live, you realize the large number of people required behind the scenes who run the show and deliver it to the radio network for worldwide listening.

Old-time religion. Values that Garrison grew up with come through in everything from the songs that are sung to the Lake Wobegon monologues.

Do I see these qualities in Wilder Research? We begin our business year every July 1st. We always want to do a little better each year than the year before, as we try to evolve to meet community needs. Looking forward on “New Year’s Day” this July, I asked myself how we should search for new ways of carrying out our work and how we should strive to improve.

If you like, please let us know how we can best improve to better meet the needs of your organization and the communities you serve. The ingredients for success, listed above, might prompt some thoughts; you might have other ingredients to mention.

Creatively, we hope to bring our many products and services to the next level – to name a few, our program evaluation work, community indicators (e.g., through Compass), return-on-investment studies, and new ways of gathering information through phone and web surveys, focus groups, and other means that we have developed in the past but want to improve. Our Speaking for Ourselves study, which involved a variety of cultural groups in innovative ways, will give new insight that should stimulate creativity. We will release the results of that study during the coming months.

Commitment to mission and persistence in our work have oriented and motivated us over the years. We strive to meet the needs of individuals, families, and communities through research and we look forward to hearing how to better do that during the coming year.

Quality constitutes a strong value. While never perfect, we seek to do the best; we welcome suggestions as to how we can do even better.

Team work. Just as in radio, many people comprise an effective research organization. Some of those people you see (at least their names; some you don’t. All do their part – designing research, collecting data, analyzing data, doing word processing and graphics production, maintaining our library and connections to sources of information, and creating our communications. That team is essential to our Wilder Research impact.

Old-time religion. Wilder Research staff bring strong values to their work. Whether from religious roots, secular humanism, or the many other sources of inspiration that people have, staff at Wilder Research choose to work in an environment where they can apply their professional skills in a way that helps others.

Wishing you the best in your work as you apply your values and talents to your mission of improving the quality of life of our communities!

War on Poverty - Winning economically and morally

Has the War on Poverty succeeded or failed? January of 2014 marked the 50^th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s “declaration of war” against poverty. As Johnson put it, "Our aim is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it." During the first half of this year, some columnists and pundits have questioned whether we have won this war or lost it.

Arguments contending the war has failed: 

• When the War on Poverty began, the national poverty rate stood at 19%. It now stands at about 15%. A four percentage point decline does not constitute “victory.”
  
• Many Americans, both those living below the poverty line, plus some who live above the line, report difficulty affording necessities such as housing and food. (See, for example the Minnesota Compass housing burden trends.) 

Arguments contending the war has succeeded: 

• Many people in this country have supports that did not exist before the war. Medicare and Medicaid, for example, have provided a safety net. Conditions have significantly improved for older people, who had great risk of living in poverty prior to the 1960s.
  
• “Apples to apples” analysis of poverty over time, with a good methodology, reveals that many more people would have lived in poverty over the past 50 years if we had not taken the steps we did with the war. 

The seeming intractability of the official poverty rate does trouble me. Maybe as someone who has worked for social justice since the 1960s, in various volunteer capacities from the neighborhood to the international level, I don’t want to admit failure.  However, I tend to subscribe to the latter arguments, concluding that deeper analysis (such as that done at the Columbia Population Research Center) reveals some economic success as a result of the health, nutrition, and preschool programs developed as part of the war. Some segments of our society, older people and children for example, would fare much worse without the programs we have established.

A new foe in the war, some suggest, is that economic growth does not lead to poverty reduction, as it once did. Because of rising income inequality, the poor do not experience financial gains from economic growth the way that they did for much of the 20^th century.

Although we must pay attention to the numbers, I don’t think we lose the war when we see a trend go in an un-hoped-for direction. I think we lose the war if and when we ever give up.

Our effort in and of itself constitutes a partial victory – the effort we expend to make sure that all children receive a good education and graduate from high school ready for college and career – the effort we expend locally, nationally, and internationally to close gaps that have the potential to reduce everyone’s quality of life and threaten our democratic institutions – the effort we expend to enhance the quality of life of every one of our community residents, from richest to poorest, as we tackle the social, economic, and environmental challenges of the 21^st century.

We might not see the bad numbers soon drop to zero, but working together to push them as close to null as possible – translating our efforts into tangible economic results for low-income people – that brings us together as a community and enables us to win this war. Economically, we win by increasing economic opportunities that provide real gains for people at every step of the income ladder. Morally, we win by joining together in the fight.

Wilder Research Staff Sharing Globally, Acting Locally

How do youth development and education issues in other countries resemble those of our own? Have our international peers developed programs or strategies that we ought to consider here?

Richard Chase and I traveled in different directions out of the U.S. last month, to learn, share, reflect, and return to Saint Paul with information that might have value for promoting healthy youth development.

Rick, a senior research manager at Wilder Research, jetted westward with Betty Emarita, an ideation and strategic change consultant, to the Global Summit on Childhood, in Vancouver, Canada.  Their presentation – Promoting and measuring family and community engagement for healthy early childhood development – was part of a roundtable discussion with other presenters under the heading Family, Home, and Indigenous Knowledge.

Rick and Betty have developed two tools – an Early Childhood Assessment; and an Early Childhood Program Quality Rating – that blend family and community knowledge systems (indigenous knowledge) into measures of child development and program quality. When used together, these tools can promote and measure family and community engagement that goes deeper than language and logistics and is based upon valuing and respecting family and community wisdom and including families as an integral part of program design and decisions.  They informed the audience as to how the use of the assessment and the quality rating and the information from those tools empower immigrant and rural communities and communities of color that often feel that mainstream institutions and programs do not support or reflect their own knowledge, experience, and values. If interested, take a look at an overview of their work.

During the Summit, Rick learned about how central governments in developing African, Asian, and Latin American countries, with the support of UNESCO, are investing in early childhood education as a key economic development and nation-building strategy. Invariably, early education programs begin with curriculum and methods based on western standards of quality but then experience push-back from local and indigenous communities who find those standards biased, and even harmful, as they struggle to preserve their traditional, holistic practices under the pressures of globalization. Rick also learned that the use of these tools resonated with researchers and educators working in developing countries to produce culturally supportive early education experiences. 

I jetted eastward to Dublin, Ireland, to present at a conference on What’s Working for Young People, and then to Belfast, Northern Ireland, for meetings and to do a presentation at Stormont, the Parliament building.

Northern Ireland, while past “The Troubles” in some respects, still retains a significant legacy of conflict. I’ve been working on research and development of a project called WIMPS (Where Is My Public Servant). This project attempts to change young people’s political knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors within a culture which is deeply segregated (in housing, education, etc.), which runs on a tribal form of party politics, and where young people too often must choose between allegiance to paramilitary groups and participation in civil, democratic forms of community decision-making.

WIMPS involves young people in educational and experiential activities, to increase their understanding of politics and to develop their skills in media production. They put what they learn to use in “campaigns” intended to change public knowledge, attitudes, and government policies. For example, during the past few years, WIMPS participants engaged in successful campaigns to end paramilitary beatings and shootings known as “punishment attacks;” they successfully persuaded the Northern Ireland Assembly to debate voting at age 16; they campaigned for suicide prevention in schools and for better rural transportation services.

Evidence shows that the program significantly increases the knowledge and skills of young people, promotes the development of “social capital,” and increases young people’s interaction with public officials at all levels. It was worthwhile to talk with an international audience about our findings to date and to hear their suggestions for program improvement and additional research.

While at the conference, I also had the opportunity to learn from international colleagues about “what’s working for young people.” Much of the research pointed to programs which can influence features of children’s environments that Ann Masten placed on her “short list of resilience factors,” things like caring parents and other adults, prosocial peers, effective teachers, and safe communities. The culture and activities within some communities create these features naturally. Other communities need help, which various programs/interventions in a number of countries have provided. Similarities across national boundaries – both negative, such as issues related to inequality, achievement gaps, etc., and positive, such as a focus on outcomes and improved understanding of what can promote healthy youth development – stood out more than the differences among people living within different borders.

International conversation with colleagues who pursue similar aims always offers insights and encourages thinking outside of the box. We returned intellectually enriched, ready to share knowledge and engage in community-building efforts here, and of course, appreciating that there’s no place like home.

Tackling the Gap with Generation Next

“The gap is there before kids walk into kindergarten. School neither increases nor reduces it.” That’s what Nobel Prize winner James Heckman opined after reviewing the results of a study which tested the cognitive abilities of a group of several hundred children from age 3 until they reached age 18.

He spoke from just one study of a limited group of young people, to corroborate what we all know from other research of other children conducted over many years. Children’s environments strongly influence academic success. Those environments propel young people in certain directions. Nourishment and nurturing, from the earliest years, even prenatally, have lasting effects – for good and for bad.

Heckman might sound a bit too pessimistic about the ability of schools to make a difference for kids. But all of us do know that families, communities, and schools jointly influence our children’s environments. Consequently, all of these important institutions must play roles if we want to eliminate gaps in educational achievement and promote the greatest development of talents for all young people. No one of them can do it alone.

That’s why we at Wilder Research value the opportunity to collaborate with Generation Next.

Generation Next takes a holistic approach. It pays attention to young people from cradle to career. It seeks to mobilize all who need to be involved in promoting academic success for all of our children. Generation Next seeks to identify the causes of both the bad and the good.

That is, by examining the indicators, doing research, and assembling networks of organizations who have expertise, Generation Next will first figure out what needs or issues exist that might be restricting the ability of young people to succeed. (R.T. Rybak likens that process to CSI.) However, this initiative doesn’t want to focus only on the empty part of the glass; Generation Next wants to understand the full part as well: What produces success, especially for kids whose environments have created many challenges. What about the kids who do well despite adversity? What about the schools who transform kids who begin their education several steps behind others?

Generation Next wants to build consensus around whatever we need to do to ensure we have the best educated young people that we possibly can.

We are happy to support this effort by assisting Generation Next to keep everyone informed about community trends and to equip everyone with knowledge that increases their effectiveness. It’s not just a select few who need to work on increasing academic success. As R.T. Rybak put it:

“This whole community will rise or fall on our ability to solve this problem that has stood for too long, so this whole community needs to help us find the right actions that can close our gaps.”

Millennials, Leadership, and the Future of Our Communities

Every generation worries that ensuing younger generations might not subscribe to current, predominant cultural norms and institutions; the younger folks might disrupt or overhaul the status quo. Even baby boomers who once sloganized, “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” now find themselves part of “the establishment,” wondering about the values, motivations, and lifestyles of people in their 20s and 30s, not to mention intrigued by younger people’s facile use of technology and social media which create new forms of social interaction.

Change comprises the only constant in life. And, as Trista Harris, president of the Minnesota Council on Foundations, told us  recently at the Minnesota Compass Annual Meeting, the lack of conformity to existing norms does not portend disaster. It simply reflects new ways of adapting to the challenges of the world.

Our meeting focused on millennials (people between 14 and 33) because they constitute the most recently emerging adult generation. All generations have impacts on the present and the future. All deserve our attention. The millennials have just begun (or will soon begin) to spread their adult wings; they will comprise a major portion of the parents, workers, consumers, business and community leaders throughout the world during the next half century. So, we need to learn about this new generation.

One fact with which you can impress friends and colleagues: Which generation in Minnesota is currently the largest? The digitals? The millennials? Generation X? The baby boomers? Or the greatest generation? Actually, the millennials, born 1981 to 2000, now outnumber the boomers, born 1946 to 1964.

Compass staff, Jane Tigan (a millennial) and Craig Helmstetter (an X-er), offered information about the millennials. For example:

• Higher Education: Minnesota’s millennials rank high, relative to other states: 39% of those between 25 and 34 have at least a bachelor's degree, resulting in a 7th place ranking compared to other states (and MSP ranks 5th among the nation’s 25 largest metros). But large racial gaps persist for degree attainment.

• Employment & Income: millennials experienced the great recession severely and remain among those still reeling. However, in making historical comparisons, we see a mixed picture: millennial women are much more likely to be employed than were young female boomers; millennial men are slightly less likely to be employed than were Gen X-ers and boomers when they entered the workforce.

• Civic Engagement: Despite the fact that millenials are the generation least likely to vote or volunteer, Minnesotas millennials nonetheless engage in these civic activities at rates higher than their age-peers in other states.

Allison Liuzzi, of Compass, and Marilee Grant,  Minnesota director of community relations, Boston Scientific, shed a lot of light on the topic of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) – trends in STEM occupations, the importance of STEM education, and STEM interest and achievement among students. They noted:

• The demand for STEM workers will grow faster than the demand for other types of workers.

• Our most rapidly growing population of young people (that is, young people of color) express stronger interest in STEM careers, and engage in more STEM extra-curricular activities, compared with white young people. However, they tend to become short-circuited before entering STEM occupations.

It’s exciting to see how Minnesota Compass has provided a platform for organizations working on STEM to share information, raise awareness, and foster collaboration. Their initiatives constitute critical and significant efforts to strengthen the workforce, address educational disparities in Minnesota, and ultimately improve the quality of life for all people.

Jennifer Ford Reedy, president of the Bush Foundation, urged, if not cautioned, us to develop a holistic perspective on social trends – positive and negative. We tend to notice, discuss, and remember the negatives. However, this can bias our perspectives and inhibit creativity in promoting improvements. So, for example, a strategy to increase STEM competence in our workforce must build on the positive: that many children, especially children of color, have STEM interests early in life. Or, workforce planning regarding the millennial generation should capitalize on the positive: the relatively high proportion of young adult Minnesotans with bachelor’s degrees.

The Compass team looks forward to another year of engagement in activities to build our communities in Minnesota.

[Resources from the annual meeting are available on the Compass website, including full talks by Trista Harris and Jennifer Ford Reedy, and several blogs providing millennials’ perspectives on what the data mean and how they might use the data to have an impact on Minnesota’s future.]

Trends in 2014

What can we expect for 2014?

The trends people follow, and which they hope to foresee for the future, depend upon their goals. At Wilder Research, we strive to make Minnesota a better place for all. So, below appear some trends of importance to watch, for those of us in the business of building human capital and improving communities’ quality of life.

Watch the millennials.

Baby boomers have long enjoyed most of the attention of marketers, demographers, the media, and the creators of pop culture. The boomers’ “pig in a python” strongly influenced all aspects of society for the past six decades. In the cradle, unbeknownst to them, they influenced the development of infant products and propelled the sales of child care advice books (e.g., Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care). They filled the bedrooms of houses in newly created, sprawling suburbs. Now, in their sun setting years, they fuel the demand for everything from condominiums to Viagra.

Millennials will similarly shape the culture – partly due to sheer size, as with the boomers, but also by virtue of their unique position to tip the scales of opinion and behavior. In addition, they comprise the workforce of the future (despite, ironically, much tougher job prospects than previous generations). Their competencies, values, and work styles will define what that workforce can do and how that workforce can best do it.

Millennials have grown up with social media and smart phones. As they came of age, so did “video phones” (a tool existing only in science fiction fantasy for baby boomers). Millennials form and sustain relationships electronically, as well as by face-to-face communication. This has already begun to change how we govern ourselves, do business, and form community.

My colleagues in nonprofit organizations will need to respond to this changing demography in order to remain relevant and vital in the communities of the future. We must acknowledge the new ways that people expect to meet their needs – whether rich or poor. We must acknowledge the conditions under which they will donate time and money to our organizations. And we must adapt our actions accordingly.

P.S. Does all this indicate a lessening of the boomers’ influence? I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion; the boomers may actually have the last laugh because the existence of a strong cohort of productive millennials constitutes a crucial ingredient of the boomers’ continued quality of life. So, millennials must be as productive as possible!

Watch the changing attitudes regarding economic disparities

It has become fashionable for leaders in both of our major political parties to decry disparities, albeit for different reasons. While the approaches to reducing poverty and increasing economic stability in the population may differ between the two parties, common recognition of the importance of trends in disparities does exist.

Wilder Research began to sound the alarm more than 20 years ago, using census data, educational outcomes data, and health data to demonstrate significant gaps among racial and economic groups that remain today. Recently, working with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation and others, we have shown how disparities based on race, place, and income threaten everyone’s health and can take years off of our lives.

Admittedly, voters throughout our country have remained mostly indifferent to the growing income inequality in the United States. And here in Minnesota, despite concern among some of our leaders and members of the general public, we have not yet defined a strategy to address racial gaps ranking among the highest in the nation for educational attainment and homeownership. Nonetheless, the issue has high visibility across constituencies. My radar tells me that the viewers of both Fox News and MSNBC will increasingly share common discomfort and concern.

Many economists predict a relatively rosy year. They suggest that the economy will improve, the stock market will maintain strength, jobs will increase, inflation will stay low, and unemployment will decline. Amidst this outlook, will disparities decline? Let’s hope that positive economic conditions actually do permeate our new year, that they mollify any scarcity mentality that might inhibit our voters to take risks and address disparities, and moreover, that they nurture an attitude shift and a resolve to address and reduce disparities.

If awareness and understanding increase, and if attitudes change this year, we might witness positive change in the status quo in years ahead.

Watch for increasing emphasis on system-changing solutions to our social and economic challenges

One-on-one, volunteer approaches to charity will not soon disappear; nor will small nonprofit agencies acting independently to do good for their communities. However, increasingly, we will see broader initiatives formally organized and funded for collective impact.

To improve the education of our children, both Promise Neighborhood and the Strive model (known locally as Generation Next) represent examples of such initiatives, which involve large sets of organizations working collaboratively with school districts and other governmental entities. A new STEM section of Compass, developed as a collaboration of Boston Scientific, Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota High Tech Association and Wilder Research, focuses on collectively targeting resources so the next generation of workers will have the skills they need.

Characteristics of such efforts typically include: a common goal or vision to which participating agencies subscribe; adherence to a set of standards for delivery of services; networks for acquiring and sharing information and results; and common core funding and infrastructure for leadership and coordination. Agencies give up some of their autonomy in order participate, but in return they become eligible for some limited funding, have the opportunity to increase the quality of their work through networking with their peers, and leverage the strength of their impacts by working in unison.

Several elements of our changing world propel this evolution of our approaches to community problem solving, for example: the overarching, worldwide effects of globalization; the complexity of the social problems which require resolution; and the new opportunities afforded by modern information technology for the development and management of large-scale collaborative efforts. In addition, these new efforts focus squarely on results. Geoffrey Canada, the original architect of the Promise Neighborhood initiative, exemplifies a “show me the data” mentality.

That “results” orientation suits the expectations among many in the new generation of voters, taxpayers, and donors (remember those millennials) who desire to see their money produce something tangibly beneficial for their communities and their charitable causes. It also satisfies the increasingly louder demands for transparency which nonprofits and government have heard during the past few years.

All the best for 2014.

Sick and Tired on Martin Luther King Day

Fannie Lou Hamer should inspire us all.

The youngest of 20 children in a sharecropping family, she had only a few years of schooling. She lived in poverty for the majority of her life; the owner of the plantation where she sharecropped evicted her for having the temerity to register to vote, and night riders subsequently shot bullets into the house of the family who provided her with shelter. After an arrest as part of a group who sought to do nothing more unlawful than eat at a bus station, she received a beating, on the orders of a highway patrol officer, so severe that she lost a kidney and lost most of the sight in one eye.

Despite these challenges, she continued a life course which bolstered the civil rights movement. After attending a voting rights rally in 1962, she became an active spokesperson for justice, and within just a few years, the nation heard her voice at the Democratic conventions of 1964 and 1968.

Hamer inspires me for several reasons, and her civil rights career adds to our insight regarding how best to do applied research at Wilder Research, to improve the lives of individuals, families and communities.

For one thing, I admire her perseverance, despite adversity and great risk. Motivated by recognition at mid-life that “Hard as we work for nothing, there must be some way we can change this,” she realized that she could, in concert with others, work to change society.

I admire her ability to skillfully push the levers which can transform attitudes and systems. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King wrote: “…there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.”

Hamer precipitated that Socratic tension – to the initial dismay (unfortunately) of Lyndon Johnson who felt that the efforts of “that ignorant woman” might undermine his bid for the presidency, and to the dismay of many others. But in the long run, she and her colleagues persevered. Their efforts let greater numbers of people exercise their right to vote. And Johnson ultimately became a civil rights champion.

I also admire her long-term vision, within which she recognized the importance of developing an economic infrastructure which could enable people to sustain themselves. To achieve this end, she collaborated in the creation of the Freedom Farms Corporation, which lent land to African-Americans and enabled them to acquire enough wealth to purchase land on their own, thus achieving financial independence. Thus, she addressed structural impediments, such as lack of home ownership and poverty, which maintain racial disparities.

Hamer once said that she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired”. On this Martin Luther King holiday, let’s hope that all of us share similar sentiments as we move forward to create a better future.

13 Highlights of 2013 (Accomplishments of Wilder Research and our partners that make us proud)

Here at Wilder Research, we have focused on improving lives, since 1917. We feel satisfaction every time we see our work has helped a child overcome barriers, an older adult  maintain a dignified standard of living, a family move into stable housing, an individual find a much needed job, and someone resolve mental health problems.

We accomplish these results by collaborating directly with hundreds of nonprofit and government organizations each and every year, on 200+ projects.

Here’s my list of 13 of the contributions we made in partnership with others during the past year, that make me proud to take part in this work:

• Reports from the Minnesota homeless study which became part of the bedrock for the new state plan for ending homelessness.
• The new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) section of Minnesota Compass, to improve Minnesota’s human capital and reduce the achievement gap – which launched through collaboration with Boston Scientific and a large network of STEM providers.
• A new School Readiness Report Card, developed in partnership with the Minnesota Office of Early Learning, to monitor the state’s progress toward the goal that all children are ready for kindergarten by the year 2020.
• Sponsorship by Senator Chuck Grassley (Republican from Iowa) and Representative André Carson (Democrat from Indiana) of a presentation of our report, Childhood Disrupted, with the Volunteers of America, on mothers in prison, to members of Congress in Washington, D.C.
• Our collaborative efforts focused on engaging community members and businesses to improve transit – such as our work on the East Side with district councils, the East Side Prosperity Campaign, and the East Side Area Business Association, as well as our joint work with Corridors of Opportunity, intending to enhance transit and economic development.
• Our study of Saint Paul’s Recycling and Solid Waste Management, commissioned by the city of Saint Paul, which resulted in plans for significant changes to the city’s recycling and waste management programs over the next 2-3 years, such as single sort, expanded plastics recycling, and possibly organics recycling options.
• A national report, Collaboration to Build Healthier Communities, prepared with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America – along with a local conference on this topic which featured examples of projects in Minnesota which address social determinants of health.
• Several initiatives with Blue Cross BlueShield of Minnesota Foundation, which have focused on the social determinants of health – offering insight into how we can promote community health.
• Indicators projects, such as oneMinneapolis and The Central Corridor Tracker, which have enabled organizations such as The Minneapolis Foundation and the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative to shape strategy, monitor change, and focus attention on community needs.
• Systems we have developed for measuring collective impact: the Homeless Management Information System that last year involved over 250 service providers and more than 650 end-users throughout the state; the Sprockets database, supported by the Wallace and Kellogg foundations, Youthprise, Greater Twin Cities United Way, and many other partners, which adds value to the network of agencies providing out-of-school time activities for children and youth; the Minnesota Kids database, used to promote children’s mental health.
• Research and evaluation assistance to educational innovations: Generation Next; Northside Achievement Zone (Promise Neighborhood); and Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood.
• Demonstration of the economic impact of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
• Demonstration, for the Mental Health Crisis Alliance, of the impact of community-based crisis stabilization services on healthcare use.

We invite you to visit our website for more details on these and other activities of Wilder Research.

Looking forward to working together with you in 2014. And wishing you peace in the New Year!