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The Partnership: A Common-Sense Approach for
Working with Low-Income Communities The Bay Area Partnership for Building Healthy and Self-Sufficient Communities for Economic Prosperity (The Partnership) is proposing to use welfare reform as an opportunity to demonstrate
how a public-private partnership can attack the symptoms and causes of poverty in low-income communities. Representatives from the Bay Area [Business] Council representing more than 300 corporations, philanthropic
foundations, The United States Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture (food stamp provider), and the nine Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara,
Solano, and Sonoma, and non-profit organizations concerned with meeting individual and community needs have been meeting for over a year under the auspices of the Northern California Council of Communities (NCCC), an offshoot of
Bay Area United Way, to devise a mechanism that could succeed where the social welfare system has failed.Conspicuously missing from The Partnership is representation from the State of California which is
responsible for setting the framework for welfare reform. Ed Schoenberger, NCC Director and staff administrator for The Partnership, believes that the strong representation of county governments and business in The
Partnerhsip will result in serious consideration of its proposals by the Governor and state legislature. The Partnership is co-chaired by Sunne McPeak of the Bay Area [Business] Council and Grantland Johnson of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its principles are:
- Goals reforming the system of service delivery aim to ensure communities make measurable progress in improving the physical and mental health of their residents; provide opportunities for people to work; and help families
become self-sufficient.
- A multi-disciplinary system including local, state, and federal agencies, non-profit service providers, and business is needed to address poverty.
- Precedence in the reform of service delivery systems should be given to communities where there are the greatest concentrations of families with low per capita incomes.
- Communities need to participate in the development of service plans with public agencies, foundations, business, non-profit organizations, etc. serving as resource links;
- Progress in achieving objectives must be monitored and evaluated.
The Partnership plans will ask the state and federal governments to allow the Bay Area to implement a regional multi-agency, welfare reform model. The Partnership argues that efforts by one Bay Area county to gain
employment for their residents would likely create problems in other counties unless there was regional coordination because residents would likely have to take jobs in other communities which were also seeking get jobs for its own
residents. Schoenberger cites studies showing that at least eight of the nine counties participating in The Partnership have a competitive advantage in promoting one or another industry. He argues that a regional approach to
opening up jobs would allow for mutual cooperation among the Bay Area counties in matching people to the right job without unfairly impacting low income communities in one county or another.
How The Partnership Strategy Would Work 1.Relevant Partnership members would meet with local counterparts to identify and solicit the participation of the key players from the targeted low-income
community. 2.Community representatives would be given an orientation to The Partnership, the principles it uses, and the resources it has available. 3.The Partnership would provide data to the
community representatives including demographic information and the assets known to be available in the community. The community representatives and Partnership would then develop a list of "outcomes" that would lead
towards the achievement of the goals stated in the strategy. 4.A strategy would be designed and implemented to overcome legislative and regulatory obstacles to achieving the "outcomes". It is anticipated that
members from the community would assume primary responsibility for the person-person delivery of services when feasible. For further information, please contact Ed Schoenberger at NCCC, (415) 772-4304. |
