Diana R. Sieger is the president of the Grand Rapids Commmunity Foundation. For more information, visit Diana's President's pages or view her biography.
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- 08/13/08 - Spirit of GR - Part 2.5!!!
- 08/13/08 - The Spirit of Grand Rapids - Part 2!
- 07/28/08 - The Spirit of Grand Rapids - What's the Future - from 1989 to 2008!
- 06/30/08 - Deja vu all over again!
- 06/23/08 - "Cushy" - "retiring" - hardly!
- Archived Posts
Other Blogs of Note
- Philanthropy 2173
- Tactical Philanthropy
- Singh around the World
- Stanford Social Innovation Review
- White Courtesy Telephone
- Chronicle of Philanthropy: Give & Take
- Open Hands
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President's Point of View: Community Collaboration is Critical!
January 16, 2007
Impact …
Collaboration …
Measurement …
… all terms that are found in the literature and in news stories that revolve around community change and the role of philanthropy. But what do these terms really mean when you are on the ground trying to address key issues?
Collaboration is essential - simply critical to the sustainability of any key program addressing the needs of community. Such is the case with the new Kent School Services Network which was inspired by the community schools model found in communities across the country. One such model is found in New York City and operated by the Children’s Aid Society in concert with their school system. As I reflect on what it has taken to get this multi-faceted program launched, it took many years, a great deal of patience and trust as diverse nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies joined together to focus on the needs of families and children by providing services at school based sites. This is a key program designed to address student achievement ultimately and was a recommendation from the 2002 Grand Rapids Education Reform Initiative’s “Straight-A Plan for Education Reform”. This report is available on this website under Community Leadership.
Will this program work? Given all the partners who are involved with this effort, you can rest assure that everyone will work very hard at making this a meaningful program!
Why am I writing about this? Because I am concerned. Collaboration is hard. It is sometimes easier to “go it alone” in truth. And I have so many examples of how there are cracks in our community that demonstrate that instead of collaboration, we have the “veneer” of collaboration.
I will be focusing on these issues of collaboration, impact and measurement in future commentaries.
