Grantee Learning Logs | Bush Foundation

An important part of creative problem solving are the lessons learned along the way. As a learning organization, we realize how important these discoveries are and have intentionally included time for reflection and sharing as part of how we work.

In that same spirit, we ask our Community Innovation grantees to share their reflections and learnings through interim and final reports. Their learning logs are a great resource for what went well, what didn't and what others might take away as they work to make our region better for everyone.

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The innovative breakthrough is that we now have a community-based evaluation process to assist clinics and healthcare providers work toward LGBTQ health equity. The standards are not only an expectation of what providers should be doing but also what LGBTQ clients should expect.

Reflecting on our work and reviewing our progress versus our stated outcomes is helping us keep our focus on areas where we need to make more progress.

[T]his work has made it clear that there is a need for greater space and time for dialogue between school leaders and communities of color in the U.S. system and shaping school practice and policy with the input from historically marginalized communities in Minnesota and nationwide.

People really do want to work together to find a solution to an identified problem - they may have different opinions on how that should happen, but when people feel they are heard they are able to join together to make a difference to work on developing and implementing a solution.

At this stage of the initiative, collaboration has been the most important element for continued progress. The OSPA Board, with representation from each of the Member Tribes, is engaging in meaningful discussions, voting on often complex issues and making critical decisions to move the work forward.

Our goal has always been focused on change within our own immigrant communities and communities of color towards an understanding of our own power and solutions.

Generation of ideas was very helpful because a diverse group of people came together and shared ideas which helped to shape a very well rounded project inclusive of many facets.

The power of collaboration has been central to our journey toward innovation. The leaders who have stepped up to be a part of this work have entered the arena as equals in decision making and ownership as we have been seeking ways to address the stated problem.

Timing matters. If you engage too early before enough decisions have been made, people ask questions that the decision-makers haven’t decided yet; if you engage too late, people feel that everything has already been decided and their input won’t be valuable. The approach matters.

Our best piece of advice would be that this work is hard and will take longer than anticipated.

Northfield Healthy Community Initiative

Term: November 01, 2013 - December 31, 2017

"Northfield Promise" is a collective impact initiative designed to achieve community-level change for children and youth growing up in Northfield. By aligning all the major community institutions around a shared set of measurable benchmarks, assembling diverse action teams, collecting and sharing data, implementing action plans, and sharing progress with community stakeholders, the project seeks to ensure success for all Northfield youth.

The longer we do this, the more committed we are to the reality that community innovation is about disrupting systems -- systems that are not working for people. This disruption can cause levels of friction and uncomfortable moments, which are not only okay but necessary.

Making everything inclusive and collaborative... bringing people into the conversation, building enough trust so that people are willing to share their ideas, and encouraging them to lead the project was a significant process in this work.

The need to continue to engage families in conversation to understand their interests, needs, hopes, and challenges; and the impactful role cultural connectors/family advocates play to encourage families to check out the Museum and support their ongoing participation, were key lessons (for us).

The Vital Aging Network worked collaboratively with HealthPartners, Wellness 50+ leadership team and community members to understand the need for community-supported wellness and to create an "operating theory" for tapping into the skills, experiences and talents of older adults to make it happen.

One key lesson learned doing work during the grant period was that it was important to identify all the needs and unanswered questions across a variety of stakeholder groups related to addressing the identified barriers.

Teaching and coaching community members to understand why they are in the current situation and how to combat the problematic system that may be causing the barriers to go forward is a slow process. The communities that had received some coaching prior to Grow Housing had a better understanding.

We think that the most useful element of the community innovation process that has been most helpful is the “collaborative” component. Establishing working relationships in our collaborative has enabled us to develop more rigorous and engaged work, and importantly, a much more varied set of outcomes

Working collaboratively was the most important piece of completing our work.

In order to catalyze a community process that is really owned by the community as a whole and seen as legitimate, you have to find the right people. And sometimes that means a whole lot more work (and time and fear and risk) involved in trying to sell those folks on participating.

It was incredibly important for staff from both institutions to be "on the ground" alongside the educators who were navigating their way through the program as it unfolded.

Each stakeholder comes to the innovation process with a unique perspective and each perspective is able to both enlighten the process and muddy the waters. Although counterintuitive, these internal disputes and stalling of the solutions has brought clarity.

We have made progress towards achieving an innovation by creating an environment and space for innovation to occur.

To date we have used the inclusive element to get a sense of direction and to get stakeholders engaged.

The process has brought to light the hurdles and risks of implementing a building inspector position within the region through the South Central Dakota Regional Council. Concerns regarding the liability for the program have been expressed by stakeholders.

It is way, way harder to find acceptable mental health treatment than I knew. The barriers for access for women - stigma, money, transportation, cultural congruency of staff -- are just huge and it's very overwhelming.

Our Coalition grew in numbers quickly, so we have learned not to be in a hurry for growth of membership. Instead, we have learned it is important to simply bring people together in small groups around the ideas, initially.

Several key lessons were learned during this year’s work; however, the central theme in each item relates to the collaborative process. Developing a new degree that is delivered between two institutions is not as simple as it appears on the surface!

Flexibility and a willingness to be nimble and make changes to our plan as needed have been really important. Our project is very innovative with not a lot of models out there to guide us so we have had to become comfortable with knowing that there will be lots of adjustments made to the plan, and t

It has been extremely important to be both inclusive, in the beginning engaging partners in the ideas of the CP program, working with the paramedics, and the NDDoH, but as the process progresses, working as a collaborative is not only important, but essential into the program succeeding.

We facilitated regular meetings with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), University of Minnesota, and U.S. Forest Service to define how the path to professional employment would be forged for our youth participants.

Be prepared for the amount of time that it will take to implement a community project. Also through my time working with the Next Steps Program, CCCC and Spirit Lake Nation, I have learned that things will happen when they are meant to.

Distributing workload and trusting people involved to hold up their end was critical to this project.

Four Bands Community Fund

Term: November 01, 2013 - June 30, 2016

Four Bands Community Fund, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, will lead a reservation-wide effort to develop and implement a comprehensive workforce development program. Using a combined place- and sector-based approach, Four Bands will provide training opportunities to increase the capacity of individuals to gain meaningful employment while supporting businesses to build their capacity to effectively hire and retain qualified employees.

Instead of just trying to alleviate the symptoms of problems, the collaborative task force tried to address the societal patterns that create the underlying issues.

It has been our experience that the networking that occurs at these intentional events, often results in improved professional connections that expand understanding and mental health in our community.

FUSE has been successful as a coalition, but more so as a catalyst to additional changes, progress and investment in anti-trafficking work in ND across disciplines.

When we hit obstacles, we have been able to turn to our partners for assistance and quickly build momentum behind the project.

One key element that has been critical to our success is cultural grounding of our primary stake holders - our youth. This has allowed them to maintain healthy personal choices, focus their overall vision for the future and maintain intergenerational mentorships and perspectives.

One of the most important lessons we have learned is about partnering to increase our impact.

Collaborative has been obviously the most important element in our work. We work with over 13 tribal nations and communities and supporting each other is an essential aspect of the success of this work.

"This grant has given us funding to take our big idea and move forward. It has allowed us to collaborate with many leaders to focus upon increasing Native American nursing students by hiring experts to take action and create solutions within the community."