Working Together to Mend our Economy
Working Together to Mend our Economy
Using the Resources of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
As you may recall, LEAD Brevard has been focusing on the five general capacity building areas for grassroots Community Benefit Organizations (CBO) also known as Non-Profits. They are: Organizational Development; Program Development; Collaboration and Community Engagement; Leadership Development and Evaluation of Effectiveness. This month, let’s look at Program Development.
This list of possibilities is illustrative but not final; we can create information systems, develop curriculum and/or make program improvements. For the purposes of our grant award, all of these capacity building activities will focus on an outcome of increasing our community benefit organizations’ ability to address the “broad economic recovery issues” present in our community.
That may translate to the creation of informal networks, coalitions or more formal financial relationships between and among community benefit organizations and other government agencies – designed to increase an organization’s sustainability and effectiveness, enhance its ability to provide social services and create collaborations to better serve those most in need.
What is the Target?
All said, one of the key goals of this section will be to assist CBO’s in helping their clients identify benefits through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to aid in this ‘economic recovery’. As examples, did you know that the United States Department of Agriculture has programs that fit into these benefit categories? Fulfilling a basic need and helping clients’ access programs like this subsequently increase the number of clients benefiting from ARRA programs.
ARRA resources and local CBO program development claim more of those ARRA resources may also include improving employability for clients through education, vocational training and/or placement; and options to enhance financial wellness.
Key websites and links to understanding more about these ARRA benefits and to begin thinking about how your CBO may develop programs to allow your clients to more fully realize the benefits include:
New Programs May Help
In order to facilitate all of this, as well as other capacity building outreach, LEAD Brevard will host a new program, known asService Leadership Brevard for selected members of the CBO and local government communities.
Targeted to begin its first session this month, Service Leadership Brevard is an 8-month training program modeled afterLeadership Brevard. Two classes of Service Leadership Brevard will be conducted during the grant period, each with 40 participants – 34 nonprofit leaders and 6 local government leaders. There are two key elements to the program: 1) a monthly, day-long, interactive group training and 2) team projects.
Session faculty/trainers will be experienced instructors and subject matter experts. The group training will also include team development activities, and information/education on community resources, programs, and access including ARRA, state and federal programs, services and benefits; tax credit programs; and workforce services.
A Team Approach
All Service Leadership Brevard participants will be assigned in teams based on geographic proximity and nature of the CBO’sservices. Each team will also include at least one local government representative. Each team will create and plan a collaboratively developed team project that will address the broader issues of economic recovery, and reflect one or more team-selected current issue(s) faced by the team members’ organization and/or clients. Part of project planning will involve identifying and exploring capacity issues and strategies to address them.
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