Rochester Area Foundation
Report date
March 2021
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
The Foundation’s agreement to reallocate part of the grant funding to support a part-time coordinator position was crucial to our progress during the second half of the grant term. This enabled us to re-envision our mission and goals in order to be more responsive to changing needs within our communities.
Creating a new organizational structure to involve a Board and committees has enabled the previous steering group members to identify specific roles within the organization. This has resulted in the recruitment of new members and a more equitable distribution of tasks. Participation and engagement in in Board and committee activities has increased significantly, and meetings are lively and productive.
Engagement of new academic partners has provided opportunities to think about new strategies for achieving our goals, particularly through the involvement of students completing doctoral projects and service-learning activities. We have also been able to offer new products to our members as a result.
Creating a new organizational structure to involve a Board and committees has enabled the previous steering group members to identify specific roles within the organization. This has resulted in the recruitment of new members and a more equitable distribution of tasks. Participation and engagement in in Board and committee activities has increased significantly, and meetings are lively and productive.
Engagement of new academic partners has provided opportunities to think about new strategies for achieving our goals, particularly through the involvement of students completing doctoral projects and service-learning activities. We have also been able to offer new products to our members as a result.
We learned that we are more resilient than we thought in the face of major world events (the impact of a health pandemic on our activities). We were quickly able to re-group and seek new funding to move some of our programs online, offering new opportunities to innovate in the field of evidence-based health promotion programming.
We recognized that we made a crucial mistake in failing to maintain support (FTE) from a key partner, resulting in the loss of our main coordinator position mid-way through the grant term. We learned the importance of keeping sustaining organizations on board and paying close attention to competing relationships with other organizations.
The impact of competition between organizations with seemingly similar objectives on our ability to achieve our goals was unexpected. To date, we have been unable to fully resolve these issues, but have been successful in adjusting our mission and activities, to complement, rather than replicate the work of other agencies.
We recognized that we made a crucial mistake in failing to maintain support (FTE) from a key partner, resulting in the loss of our main coordinator position mid-way through the grant term. We learned the importance of keeping sustaining organizations on board and paying close attention to competing relationships with other organizations.
The impact of competition between organizations with seemingly similar objectives on our ability to achieve our goals was unexpected. To date, we have been unable to fully resolve these issues, but have been successful in adjusting our mission and activities, to complement, rather than replicate the work of other agencies.
Key lessons learned
1. There needs to be FTE assigned to coordinating so strategic initiatives, meetings, projects are moved forward. We determined how to expand the work capacity through the use of graduate students needing service learning, or volunteer hours. We have refined the role of coordinator and determined tasks key for this role and reassigned work that could be done by an administrative assistant.
2. There was renewed energy and participation by our members when the work was divided up into three sub-committee. Members chose the committee work that aligns to areas of interest. Using Zoom allowed for more participation as our members live throughout the region.
3. COVID impacted everything! While agencies (and our members) were pulled out to address the impact within their organizations, the down time allowed us time to: re-examine our strategic plan, develop a research infrastructure and Research Oversight Committee, add new organizational partners, and work on website and portal updates.
2. There was renewed energy and participation by our members when the work was divided up into three sub-committee. Members chose the committee work that aligns to areas of interest. Using Zoom allowed for more participation as our members live throughout the region.
3. COVID impacted everything! While agencies (and our members) were pulled out to address the impact within their organizations, the down time allowed us time to: re-examine our strategic plan, develop a research infrastructure and Research Oversight Committee, add new organizational partners, and work on website and portal updates.
Reflections on the community innovation process
Meaningfully engaging key stakeholders. Having the right people at the table who are enthusiastic, committed to our vision, passionate and in meaningful relationships with the people and communities we want to serve. During the grant period, in addition to our full-time coordinator, we lost several key members of our steering group as we appeared to lose direction and leadership. Recruiting the right person with the necessary personal qualities and skill-set, into a part-time coordinator role, has been crucial to engaging with new partners and moving our vision forward. Remaining enthusiastic and committed ourselves, and ‘selling’ what we have to offer to potential partner organizations has been key to growing our organization. Moving meetings online using Zoom has increased attendance and improved participation. Maintaining regular communication using easily accessible channels has been important to keeping people on board.
Progress toward an innovation
A recent research publication 2020 CONNECTING COMMUNITY‐DELIVERED EVIDENCE‐BASED PROGRAMS AND THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM: PILOTING A LEARNING “WELLCARE” SYSTEM sought to identify proof of concept. Does WellConnect provide the ability to collaborate and improve health for those who participate? While the findings were inconclusive, there is enough evidence to suggest further research is warranted. Our focus now is to increase the participant data so additional research can occur.
Data in the region suggested a need for an evidence based mental health program. In collaboration with our academic partners and partner organizations, we explore options, identified programs, determined PEARLS to be best for our regional needs, obtained additional grant funding to train several individuals, and pilot planning is underway. WellConnect provided the leadership necessary for various organizations to collaborate on the pilot rather than compete, to offer complement services rather than duplicate. We will be seeking additional grant funding to support this work.
We have yet to achieve financial sustainability outside of grant funding. This is our next focus.
Data in the region suggested a need for an evidence based mental health program. In collaboration with our academic partners and partner organizations, we explore options, identified programs, determined PEARLS to be best for our regional needs, obtained additional grant funding to train several individuals, and pilot planning is underway. WellConnect provided the leadership necessary for various organizations to collaborate on the pilot rather than compete, to offer complement services rather than duplicate. We will be seeking additional grant funding to support this work.
We have yet to achieve financial sustainability outside of grant funding. This is our next focus.
What it will take to reach an innovation?
We feel we are part way to achieving an innovation. We have expanded partnerships, restructured our organization and created new ways of working. Relationships are strong and committed. A current focus is on work to identify a major partner willing to support the coordination of WellConnect. The current need is threefold: 1) to build upon previous work in order to increase access to evidence-based health promotion programs and interventions; 2) to further develop our model in ways that promote a culture of health within communities that it is responsive to changing needs while also being sustainable, and 3) to develop in ways that complement, rather than replicate, other state-wide initiatives that have developed in response to our lead. New programs and activities are needed to extend the reach of WellConnect and enhance our potential to contribute to a culture of wellness within our local communities. There is also a need to develop and evaluate approaches that will embed these ideas and processes within programs that prepare health and social care providers for practice.
What's next?
We plan to build on existing projects to expand access to, and uptake of, online programs. Recent development of a Zoom toolkit, currently being piloted, will assist potential participants who are unfamiliar with this technology to join programs.
We also want to continue to expand program offerings, particularly to reach underserved groups. Recently, twelve undergraduate nursing students were trained to lead the SAIL class. We were able to connect two male students with a group of Somali men who were eager to participate in the class, but specified that leaders had to be male. One example of how WellConnect creates connections between organizations to meet identified needs within communities.
Discussions are in progress with one of our academic partners regarding the potential for locating our operation in physical space within the university. Administrative support would also be provided by the academic partner in recognition of the fact that our organization provides numerous and varied opportunities for service-learning experiences and scholarly projects. WellConnect would be one component of a Center of Excellence for service-learning and community engagement.
We also want to continue to expand program offerings, particularly to reach underserved groups. Recently, twelve undergraduate nursing students were trained to lead the SAIL class. We were able to connect two male students with a group of Somali men who were eager to participate in the class, but specified that leaders had to be male. One example of how WellConnect creates connections between organizations to meet identified needs within communities.
Discussions are in progress with one of our academic partners regarding the potential for locating our operation in physical space within the university. Administrative support would also be provided by the academic partner in recognition of the fact that our organization provides numerous and varied opportunities for service-learning experiences and scholarly projects. WellConnect would be one component of a Center of Excellence for service-learning and community engagement.
If you could do it all over again...
In the process of re-creating our organizational structure, we have recognized the importance of having a strategic plan, clearly identifying our priorities, that everyone has had the opportunity to contribute to, fully understands and is committed to implementing. We have created a unique collaboration of organizations and individuals within a geographically defined area, who are committed to creating a culture of wellness among local communities, and a system for achieving this. However, during the early days of our operation, we allocated insufficient time and energy to formulating and communicating this vision. We dove into the practical organization and resourcing of programs without having a clear idea of our ultimate goal. This would have allowed us to position ourselves strategically in relation to other organizations competing for funds for seemingly similar activities, enabling us to be further along in our search for a sustainable funding model.
One last thought
We have realized the importance of being able to respond swiftly to funding opportunities. Having a raft of ideas worked up and ready to go would enable us to be more competitive in seeking grant funding. There is potential for engaging students in this work. We have also recognized the extent to which our operation is subject to external constraints, such as licensing requirements. This requires thinking ahead to plan for when licenses to offer programs will expire, and coordinating resources accordingly.