6 The collaborating body includes collaborative bylaws, procedures, policies, workgroups, an organizational chart, and membership-owned decision-making. The backbone organization retains neutral facilitation/coordination, is transparent, and exists to focus on the needs and outcomes of the collaborative. The backbone acts as a portal for state/federal public and private grants and does all of the backroom work to blend and leverage funding streams to support evidence-based practices, continuous communication, and the facilitated planning, evaluation, and reporting. It must not be in competition for funding with community partners and new policies and procedures are created for sharing decision making, data, and accountability. 7 Coaching is a key component of community response and may be provided through an existing agency, the collaborative, or through a contract with an agency when someone does not qualify for existing services. 8 The following factors increase the probability of positive, adaptive, and healthy outcomes: knowledge of child and youth development, social emotional, and cognitive competence, parental and youth resilience, social connections, concrete supports, and gaps in services and supports. 9 Collaborative members are trained in common skills on facilitation, change management, conflict resolution, budget development, and grant writing. Authentic Engagement with Lived Experience Partners Throughout the Bring Up Nebraska initiative, new systems and local partners across the state have come to the table with a commitment to co-creation through authentic engagement with individuals with lived experience. Creating a lasting impact on communities requires the perspectives of the individuals who have been directly impacted by social systems. In addition, there is a pressing need for professionals on all fronts to understand how each system functions in the lives of those who are being served by those systems. It’s not enough to survey people on mass scales and gather data; there must be dedicated space for these individuals to use their voices and share their full experiences to assist in co-creating the solutions that are necessary to improve the lives of Nebraskans across the entire state. Authentic engagement and co-creation of system change are vital but also complex; it takes intentional effort and true heart to grow meaningful relationships between those who represent the system and those who are impacted by the system. This is consistent with the CWB model, which is based on the premise that power needs to be shared and business needs to be done differently. There is no single organization that can create large-scale, lasting social change alone. It requires organizations—including those in government, the private sector, and the nonprofit sector—to work collaboratively with each other and lived-experience leaders toward a shared vision for child well- being and shared outcomes for all children. Outcomes Nebraska’s CWB model set the vision for and has achieved the following outcomes: ● Improvement in well-being for the general population, measured by priority indicators: children are safe, healthy, ready, and successful in school and supported in quality environments - see Table 3 below. ● Children do not enter the child welfare system- see the background and child abuse and neglect indicator below. ● Youth and family promotive and protective factors are enhanced – See table 2 A paired- samples t-test analysis was completed to compare pre-post scores. The results found that families made statistically significant improvements in the areas of Concrete Supports [t(70)= -2.652, p=.01], Hope [t(169) = -8.577, p<.001], and Resilience [t(173) = -5.127, p<.001]. ● A broad-based community collaborative that holds members accountable and is focused on collective impact and a community well-being agenda. ● Public and private systems function to support community ownership and solutions to maximize opportunities for children—The 22 community collaboratives leveraged seven million of local dollars which, is 24 percent of the total $30,002,024 utilized for community well- being outcomes .
FIJ Quarterly | Summer 2022 | 107
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