Community Empowerment Board Development Training

Community

Community

Empowerment

Empowerment

Board

Board

Development

Development

Training

Training

Community Empowerment Board

Community Empowerment Board

Development Training

Development Training

Welcome/Introductions

• Break into groups of 3 or 4 persons

– What do you want to learn today? – What can you teach others today?

Overview of Day

• Overview of Community Empowerment • Legal Responsibilities of Board

• Community Plan

• Indicators (State/Community) • Redesignation

Has your board adopted a vision

statement?

Iowa’s Vision for Early

Childhood:

Every child, beginning at birth,

will be healthy and successful.

Has your board adopted a

purpose/mission statement?

Iowa Empowerment Board

Mission:

The Iowa Empowerment Board supports communities by

demonstrating and facilitating leadership and collaboration to

achieve desired results for children (0-5) and their families.

Purpose of

Community Empowerment

Build an early care, health and education system through

– Partnerships;

– Empower individuals and communities;

– Improve the well-being of young children and their families

Iowa Empowerment Board

Leadership Agenda – FY 2005

results for improving the quality of life for children (0-5) and their families.

Collaboration

The Iowa Empowerment Board, public and private organizations, and communities develop collaborations to build an interdependent system that is both comprehensive and integrated, for children (0-5) and their families.

Advocacy

The Iowa

Empowerment Board will lead policy

development and build public

engagement for support for Early Childhood and Early Learning for children (0-5) and their

State Structures Local Structures

State and Local Partnership

Shared Responsibility

Community Empowerment Structure

State Structures Local Structures

Office of Empowerment Community Empowerment Area Contacts Local Advisory Council State Empowerment Team Technical Assistance Partners (AEAs, Community Colleges, ISU Extension, Other)

Community

Empowerment Areas

• 58 areas representing all 99 counties • Areas are geographically self-defined • Areas implement community plans

Community Plan

• Based on Community Assessment(s) • Reviewed annually

– Community Indicator Data

Result Areas/Indicators

• Healthy Children

• Children Ready to Succeed in School

• Safe and Supportive Communities

• Secure and Nurturing Families

• Secure and Nurturing Child Care Environments

• Low Birth Weight

• Rate of Immunization by Age 2 • Children entering kindergarten are

ready for school • Serious crime • Juvenile arrests • Poverty Level • Employment rate

• Incidence of child abuse • Teen Birth rate

• Child Abuse in a Child Care Setting

• Availability of Child Care

*The Iowa Empowerment Board approved the indicators on January14, 2000, to track statewide progress toward the results.

Community Empowerment

Fall Board Training

Legal Responsibilities of the

Local Community

Activity

• How Many Members Are On Your Board? • Do You Have Term Limits?

• How Many Board Meetings Do You Convene in One Year?

• Do You Have Board Committees or an Advisory Council?

CEA Board FAQs

• Legal Responsibilities of the Board • Structure of the Board

• Content of By-Laws

• Recruitment of Members • Conflicts of Interest

Handout:

Statutory Responsibilities of a

Community Empowerment

Board

• Cites Legal Responsibilities Outlined in Code and Rules.

• Divided into Two Sections: What a Board “Will” Do and What They “May” Do.

Fiscal Responsibilities

Each Board Member should know how to read basic financial reports, statements

and projections because: 1. Necessary for Planning

2. Improves Communications 3. Legal Responsibilities

Board Structure

• 51% Citizens or Elected Officials • human services • education • health • Business (citizen) • Consumer (citizen) • Faith (citizen)

Handout

-Community Empowerment

Board By-Laws

• Checklist for Writing By-Laws • Resources:

– Empowerment Toolkit

• Tool X

– Iowa State University Extension

Recruitment of Board Members

“The most effective boards – those whose members are deeply committed to the

organization’s mission, who bring expertise in key areas, and who represent diverse

points of view – evolve over time through careful planning.”

The Board Building Cycle: Nine Steps to Recruiting, and Engaging Nonprofit Board Members

What Does Our

Board Need?

• What is the current composition of our board?

• What characteristics, skills, experience, and backgrounds do we need now?

• What gaps will we need to fill in the future? • What are the priorities for identifying and

recruiting new members?

• What other attributes or qualities are important?

Building a Diverse Board

“Inclusion is never easy and it includes supporting people who say new things,

bringing in new people, and making things uncomfortable. It also means reaching out beyond the usual suspects.”

The Board Building Cycle: Nine Steps to Recruiting and Engaging

Conflict of Interest

• Board members have a duty to subordinate personal interests to the welfare of the CEA board.

• Conflicting Interests can be: - financial

- personal relationships - status or power

Conflict of Interest

Activity

• Working in groups of two to three persons, read the “Conflict of Interest” scenario and use the questions to guide your discussion.

Barriers to Keeping Boards

Involved:

a) The Board is too large b) The Board is too small

c) The Executive Committee is too active d) Ineffective orientation

e) Agendas are weak

f) Members do not feel they are important e) Little opportunity for discussion

Board Evaluation

• Has the Board shifted from it’s guiding purpose?

• Does the mission statement reflect the CEA?

• Does the structure still work?

• Do the services funded match the priorities? • Do the priorities match the community

Board Evaluation Activity

First: Individually, complete the Individual Board Member Self-Evaluation.

Second: Identify one aspect that you would like to improve upon in the coming year. Third: Find at least two other people and

Developing your

Community Plan

Community Plan

• Serves as the map for what needs to be done in your area

• Serves as a way to gauge how well you are doing to support children and families

• It should be a collaborative plan, as you can’t do it all your self

Element of a Community Plan

• Vision and Mission

• Community Assessment • Community Indicators • Goals

• Strategies

• Implementation or Actions to be taken • Analysis/Evaluation of the Plan

Community Plan

Process

Assessment _{Plan Development}

Indicators Strategies Goals Implement Analyze And Report Make Improvements

Community Plan

Vision and Mission

• Vision sets the course – where do we want or need to go?

• Mission tells what you will do to get to the vision

Community Plan

Community Assessment

• Organizing the Plan

• Preparing for Data Collection • Data Collection

• Analyzing the Data

Community Plan

Organizing

• Create an ad hoc committee • Identify key community

representatives • Timeline

Community Plan

Preparing to Collect

• Type of data needed or desired • Sources of data

• Issues to consider

Community Plan

Type of Data

Community Plan

Data Collection

• Critical Tasks or Methods • Individual(s) responsible • Timelines

Community Plan

Data Analysis

• Perform a ‘Gap Analysis’

– Where are we now?

– Where do we want to be? – Major issues

– Primary strengths

– Primary opportunities for improvement (Gaps or challenges)

Community Plan

Community-wide Indicators

• How will know how you are doing over time?

• Community-wide indicators may be some of the same data you used in your

community assessment

Community Plan

Setting Goals

• Goals set direction • Are outcome based

Community Plan

Selecting Strategies

• Overall approaches to meet the goals • Strategies should:

– Proven effective

– Have the potential to impact – Match community values – Feasible

Community Plan

Implementation

• Develop Action Steps • Time Frame

Community Plan

Evaluation/Review

• Methods for reviewing the data • How often?

• Individuals involved • Using the findings

Community Plan Activity

Selecting strategies:

• Review the case study • Determine 1 –2 issues

• Determine 1 –2 goals for each issue • Identify 1 –2 strategies for each goal

• Use the “selecting strategies” worksheet to help determine which strategies to pursue

Community Empowerment Fall

Board Development Training

Adopting and Using

Indicators

Activity

If you had two-minutes in an elevator, what would you tell people about your

Empowerment area?

– Jot down your talking points (1 minute)

What Are Indicators?

• From Ch 349 of the Iowa Administrative Code – definitions:

– “Indicator” means a measure that indirectly quantifies the achievement of a result.

Choosing Indicators

• Communication Power • Proxy Power

Using Indicators

• Rule of Thumb is to adopt 3-5 indicators per result area

• Does your Board Annually review its

indicators and the information gathered to reflect those indicators?

• Sharing the indicator data:

– External – Internal

Activity – Building Public

Awareness

• Prepare your 2-minute elevator speech again, this time using indicators to tell your story.

Community Empowerment

Framework

• Visualizes how everything connects:

– Community assessment

– Result areas and community-wide indicators – Community plan

– Contract performance – Annual Report

Preparing for Redesignation

• Boards may seek redesignation every three (3) years

• Allows:

– For the continuation of the status of the Board – Areas to receive state and federal funding

– Self-assessment to identify strengths and opportunities of improvement

Redesignation Self-Evaluation

– Programs/Services for Strategies – Board Structure & Operation

– Support Structure for the Board

Redesignation

• From Chapter 28.2(2):

It is intended that through the community empowerment

initiative, by June 30, 2005, every community in Iowa will have developed the capacity and commitment for using

local decision making to achieve the following initial set of desired results:

a. Healthy children.

b. Children ready to succeed in school. c. Safe and supportive communities. d. Secure and nurturing families.

Wrap Up

• Complete Evaluation Forms

Office of Empowerment

Iowa Department of Management Capitol Building, Room 12

Des Moines, IA 50319-0001 515/281-4321

[email protected]