Demystifying the

COMMON AGENDA

TOOLKIT

Collaborative Approaches to Well-Being in Rural Communities

Alliance for Greater Works® is excited that you are at this point in your collaborative planning process! This toolkit outlines the Collaborative Approaches to Well-Being in Rural Communities’ (WRC) Common Agenda template.

The Common Agenda is crucial to realizing the county’s collaborative progress toward addressing systemic problems with diverse community voices and those most affected. The common agenda process offers the tools/strategies to reimagine equitable solutions to mental health, resilience, and wellbeing in your rural county.

The Common Agenda will be the culmination of the WRC three year planning phase. This toolkit answers the questions: 1. What is the Common Agenda? 2. What is the purpose of the Common Agenda? 3. How long does this take? 4. What does the Common Agenda contain? In the following pages, you’ll find information to guide you through this part of the journey. The thirteen sections will lead to a comprehensive document of the county’s collaborative work planned, as well as your sustainability.

Alliance will walk side by side with you in completing your county’s Common Agenda by offering mentoring, training, and technical assistance.

Sincerely,Sherrye WillisPresident/CEO

WELCOME

1

The Collaborative Approaches to Well-Being in Rural Communities (WRC) initiativegrew out of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health’s new strategic direction toaddress the root causes of poor mental health at the community and systems level.The foundation recognizes that community-based approaches are necessary tomake a lasting transformation in mental health and well-being. The three-year grantawarded in 2018, totaling $4.5 million, serves five Texas counties, each with a population of 250,000 people or less. The WRC initiative aims to support the transformation of rural environments where people live, learn, work, play and pray, bringing a population health approach to support resilience, mental health and well-being.

• FIVE COUNTIES (Bastrop, Brooks, Morris, Nacogdoches and Victoria) were selected to create inclusive, solutions-oriented community collaboratives to address resilience, mental health and well-being.

• THE LEAD ORGANIZATIONS from the five counties were each awarded a $410,000 grant to create or build upon an existing collaborative focused on identifying community needs and social determinant interventions that promote resilience, mental health and well-being. The grant does not fund mental health services. The lead organization is responsible for engaging cross-sector partners and working with the community to develop the community collaborative over three years (some counties may require less time). By the end of the three years, each lead organization will submit their collaboratives’ common agenda.

• THE COMMON AGENDA should outline: 1) key goals and strategies; 2) what the partners have learned within their broader community and the rationale for the goals they have chosen to work on together; and 3) a road map for how those partners have agreed to work together, including their governance model and a budget.

• THE COLLABORATIVES have flexibility in determining their collaborative approach, but all counties must utilize best-practice collaborative models that address systems level change. They must be willing to demostrate a commitment to shared learning, provide detailed plans for community inclusion and participation, and share decision-making and leadership opportunities with historically excluded populations so as not to perpetuate existing inequities.

• COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS should include all sectors of the community and ensure participation of historically excluded groups (i.e. excluded on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, geography, etc.) at every crucial phase to move their community toward greater well-being.

• TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING (TA) will be offered to all five collaboratives as follows:

• Alliance for Greater Works is the WRC Coordinator offering TA to ensure that each lead organization and the broader collaboratives are built with effective leadership, collaborative structures and processes, engagement of historically excluded populations, and more. Also, contact Alliance for evaluation needs and resources including assess ments, asset mapping and mapping, as well as data collection, analysis and use.

• Texas A&M University School of Public Health, Center for Community Health Development is the WRC Learning Team responsible for evaluation TA related to needs and resources assessments, asset mapping, and metrics, as well as data collection, analysis and use.

• To access all TA, contact Alliance for Greater Works at: WRChelp@allianceforgreaterworks.org or 817.835.0271

Program Details

Collaborative Approaches to Well-Being in Rural Communities

1 Source: Pew Social Trends. “Breadwinner Moms;” May 29, 2013. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/29/breadwinner-moms/2 Source: McKinsey & Co. (2015). http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/why-diversity-matters3 Chronicle of Philanthropy, https://www.philanthropy.com/items/biz/pdf/WIP_Infographic_04302014_v2_screen.pdf4 “Building Movement Initiative, Race to Lead 2017, http://testing.komplekscreative.com/building-movement/code/ assets/racial-leadership-gap-report.pdf

Fact Sheet

for GREATERWORKS

TM

2

YEAR

DISCOVER1

1

Educate county of WRC (ongoing)

2

Track measures

3

Develop plan to engage historically-excluded groups (HEGs)

4

WRC BaselineInterviews/historical

background

6

Select best practice coalition model

7

Identify champions & cross-sector steering committee members

5

Connect & build community relationships (ongoing)

8

Listening sessions: county issueshistorical inequities

9

Identify county needs with data

10

Shared learning (in-person)

11

Special projects (ongoing)

12

Special projects (ongoing)

1

Shared learning (in-person)

2

Track measures

3

HEGs outreach and engagement (ongoing)

4

Create logic model

5

Analyze county data/asset map landscape

6

Develop community profile/historical narrative

7

Share findings;Community visioning

sessions8

Recruit & train workgroup co-chairs & members

9

Work groups develop systems-level strategies

10

Build advocacy capacity

11

Shared learning (in-person)

12

County input onWorkgroup strategies

13

Track measures, results and reporting

YEAR

3DEVELOP

YEAR

DEFINE2

1

Shared learning (in-person)

2

Track measures

3

HEGs outreach & engagement(ongoing)

4

Create coalition infrastructure 5

Develop common agenda (implementation plan)

6

Continue community engagement with advocacy focus

7

Shared learning(in-person)

8

Establish sharedmetrics

9

Common Agenda approved and

submitted to Alliance 10

Track measures,results and reporting

WELL-BEING IN RURAL COMMUNITIES COLLABORATIVE BUILDING ROADMAP

3

What is the Common Agenda?A common agenda is the outcome of a shared vision and mobilizes communities toward change. The common agenda will help answer:

1. How will you work together? (Guiding Principles)

2. What is in and what is out? (Boundaries & Problem Definition)

3. How will you define success? (Goal)

4. How will you split up the work and prioritize? (Framework for Change)

5. How will you track progress and learn? (Plan for Learning)

What is the purpose of the Common Agenda? • Presents the outcome of research, consultations, and learning in the community

• Outlines the key goals and strategies you have agreed to and will use

to implement your strategies

• Maps out how you will work together, including a budget and the

governance model

4

How long does this take?

Principles

ProblemDefinition

Goal

Plan forLearning

Frameworkfor Change

5

WHAT DOES THE COMMON AGENDA CONTAIN?

Section 1:

County Collaborative Executive Summary

• The county collaborative’s overall goal to address mental health, resilience, and community well-being in your county

• Your collaborative structure

• Projected funding amount needed for implementation phase

• Lessons learned and roadblocks during the planning phase

• Your successes and challenges

• Current collaborative membership size

• Outline your process and tools utilized to develop, increase, and strengthen your collaborative’s knowledge, skills, and capacity

• What recommendations and/or lessons learned do you propose for other/future communities seeking to do this work?

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Section 2:

Collaborative Vision, Mission Statement, & Guiding Principles

• County Collaborative’s Vision Statement

• County Collaborative’s Mission Statement

• Guiding Principles addressing:

- Diverse membership representative of the county population and separate from traditional leadership

- Shared power and all voices heard (HEGs)

- Regularly scheduled meetings led by collaborative members (versus Lead Organization) who have been selected by the membership

- Ongoing structure to include agenda, accessible minutes, communicated meeting dates and times

- Implementation plans developed by collaborative members that are realistic and most impactful for their community

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Section 3:

Collaborative Model & Community Engagement Approach

• Identify collaborative model utilized to build collaborative

• Describe collaborative structure and monthly meeting schedule

• Describe your collaborative membership at the beginning, middle, and end of the project

• Steps taken to develop Advisory Committee and the collaborative, etc.

• Who was a part of the process?

• Members and their representation(s)

• Historically Excluded Groups-number engaged, number still involved, how this matches the makeup of the community

- Share stories from two collaborative members. Please be sure to include one story from a historically excluded group member.

Questions to consider:

- How did you become involved?

- What needs to happen in order for you to remain involved?

- Do you believe your unique voice is respected and heard by the collaborative? Please explain.

- Did the collaborative meet your expectations? Please explain.

• Role of Lead Organization during the Planning Phase

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Section 4:

County Problems Collaborative Seeks to Address

• How will the collaborative address the root cause of your county’s poor mental health and well-being at the community and systems level?

• Did a community visioning process take place? If so, please outline the key take-aways and results.

Section 5:

Your County’s Proposed Systems-Level Strategies Addressing Your

Complex Problems

• Boundaries and Problem Definition; a concise description of an issue to be addressed or a condition to be improved upon. The problem definition identifies the gap between the current state and desired state of a process.

• Goals; the desired results you want to achieve with a deadline

• Two - three top strategies with reasoning for choosing to align with these strategies

• Expected outcomes and how it aligns with achieving community well-being

• Outcome indicators

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Section 6: Develop for Each Strategy: Processes, Outcomes, Results Connected to

Community Well-Being, Mental Health, &/or Resilience

Section 7: When will you implement your framework for change?

Section 8: County Assets & Resources

• What assets in your county have you discovered or created over the past three years? Consider people, associations, institutions, spaces, local economy, etc.

Strategy Development

Task Timeline (to span approx. 5 years)

Description Proposed Partners &Responsibilities

Cost & Budget Benefit Analysis ofSocial Return (how resilience is measured)

Framework for Change

Strategy Projected Start Date (quarter, year) Projected Completion Date (quarter, year)

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Section 9: Collaborative Structure To ensure all voices are heard, please share your collaborative structure. Consider your community’s definition of a Historically Excluded Group (HEG): elderly, experiencing homelessness, ethnicity, socio-economic scale, youth, etc.

Steering Committee or Advisory Member

Name Business Affiliation Member of a HEG? If yes, please explain

Work Group Members, if applicable

Name Business Affiliation Member of a HEG? If yes, please explain

Partner Organization Members

Name Business Affiliation Member of a HEG? If yes, please explain

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Section 10:

Describe the Lead Organization for the Implementation Phase

• Leadership (key individuals)

• Organization Name (entity serving as Lead Organization)

• Experience and qualifications

• Legal structure: (501(c)(3) or Fiscal Agent)

• Organization’s track record of success

Section 11:

Marketing and Communication Strategy during Implementation Phase

How will you continue engaging the community through the implementation phase of the collaborative work, including:

• Build awareness of the collaborative

• Adapt marketing and communication strategies from the planning phase to implementation phase

• What communication and marketing channels the collaborative will use (website, Facebook, instagram, twitter, constant contact, door-to-door, mailings)

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Section 12:

Planning for Learning: Shared Measurements

Developing a shared measurement system is essential to collaborative work. An inclusive agreement on the ways success will be measured and reported is crucial.

Collecting data and measuring results consistently with community level indicators across all participating organizations not only ensures that all efforts remain aligned, it also enables the participants to hold each other accountable and learn from each other’s successes and failures.

Section 13:

Budget & Sustainability

• Present and explain budget

• Share the collaborative’s sustainability model

• Provide projected cost and any supplemental support

www.alliancetx.org Mission: Dismantling the root causes of Injustices affecting marginalized communities

Toolkit sponsored by

Planning for Learning: Shared Measurements

Objective Who are yourpartners?

How will successbe measured?

What are your metricsfor measurement?

How will results be sharedwith rhe Community?