On Thursday, July 21, during a seemingly endless excessive heat warning, the Mayor’s Commission on Children, Youth and Families for the City of St. Louis met. Construction at St. Louis Community College - Forest Park, where these meetings are usually held, gave the commission the opportunity to meet at a different location in the community. The July meeting was held at Innovative Concept Academy.
Commission member Judge Jimmie Edwards began the meeting by giving a brief description of his ground-breaking school, Innovative Concept Academy. This school involves a partnership between a number of commission members and their respective institutions including Dr. Lewis Chartock of MERS Goodwill, Dr. Kelvin Adams of the St. Louis Public Schoolsand recent involvement from Mr. Ray Creely, formerly with IBM.
To better understand the need for this school and the important role it is playing in serving some of our most at-risk kids, Susan Guerra, Chief Legal Counsel of St. Louis Family Court, gave a very informative, concise presentation on the Juvenile Court system. That “Juvenile Court 101” presentation can be viewed by clicking here.
Commission member Wendell Kimbrough of ARCHS presented next and gave a detailed update on the After School for All Partnership (ASAP). Clear connections where made between providing quality after school programs and keeping kids out of the juvenile justice system. This presentation allowed commission members to grasp the full impact ASAP is having in the city. Mr. Kimbrough also revealed the exciting news that St. Louis is in consideration for a Wallace Foundation grant that would, among other things, allow for the creation and implementation of a joint data system. To view slides from this presentation click here.
“Collective Impact” could definitely be considered a buzz concept around town. Guest presenter Mary McMurtrey of Gateway Center for Giving gave an energetic presentation to the Commission that not only introduced and identified the key components of collective impact, but also discussed the status of collective impact efforts in the St. Louis region among both nonprofits and funders. To view slides from this presentation click here. For the article on collective impact from the Stanford Social Innovation Review by Kania and Kramer click here.
Next Johanna Warton of Grace Hill gave an update on the St. Louis Children’s Initiative, an initiative that involves many collective impact concepts. This presentation outlined the indicators and outcomes, methodology, staffing plan, and timeline for this initiative. To view slides from this presentation click here. To view a draft of the St. Louis Children’s Initiative program model click here.
Both Mr. Kimbrough and Ms. Warton discussed the possibility of the development and implementation of a data system related to their respective initiatives in their presentations. Shared Measurement Systems are also a key component of collective impact. Shared data/measurement systems seem to be a growing area of interest, particularly as funders begin to require concrete, measurable outcomes that "move the needle" on a particular issue. This article provides a great overview of shared measurement as it relates to social impact.
To wrap up the meeting Ashleigh Harold of Vision for Children at Risk gave a demonstration of the Children’s Policy Forum. This website (www.visionforchildren.org) is a vital community resource for those serving children, youth and families in the St. Louis area. It provides detailed data at the ZIP code level on numerous child well-being indicators and provides in-depth policy information related to children’s issues.
The next meeting of the Mayor’s Commission on Children, Youth and Families will be held on Thursday, October 13 at 8:30 AM at Vision for Children at Risk.
Note: Unfortunately Mayor Slay was unable to attend this meeting as he was participating in activities related to the U.S. Conference of Mayors where he chairs the Jobs, Education and the Workforce Committee.
Written by Liz Hoester, Staff to the Mayor's Commission on Children, Youth and Families This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it