The
Nicholtown Child and Family Collaborative project aims to create a
community-based, two-generation community center in a high-needs area of
Greenville, South Carolina, known as Nicholtown. This paper provides an outline
of the steps taken to achieve progress towards this purpose, as well as
recommendations and lessons learned for others who wish to execute similar
projects.
Overview of Nicholtown Child and
Family Collaborative (NCFC) Purpose
NCFC was established to provide
services for the children and families of Nicholtown to improve child outcomes;
provide parent training, education, and employment; and build lasting community
infrastructure (1,
2). The project will
include a two-generation model, a standard that has been used by Head Start and
other welfare reform programs since the 1980s and 1990s (3-5). It has been noted that two-generation
programs share 3 important features: 1) a developmentally appropriate early
childhood program, 2) a parenting education component, and 3) an adult
education, literacy, or job skills and training component (6).
Methods
and Procedure
Why Nicholtown?
The City of Greenville laid out a
Neighborhood Plan in 2011, which included a Master Plan for Nicholtown, an
urban neighborhood encompassing 390 acres in the heart of Greenville (7). The Master Plan for Nicholtown
was an indicator of long-standing interest in revitalizing the historic
neighborhood. Nicholtown community members had been pleased with the housing
progress in their neighborhood, but were disgruntled by the inattention to their
children and community. They wanted a school and community center that would
provide resources for their children and families. Therefore, after demolition
and reconstruction of low-income housing had been completed (the first step of
the Master Plan), the next step was to provide for the children and families of
Nicholtown.
Setting up the Collaborative
Identification
and recruitment of stakeholders. Chandra Dillard, a South Carolina State
Representative, began work on assembling the Collaborative in 2012, shortly
after the first housing revitalization steps of the Nicholtown Master Plan were
complete. She heard the needs of her community, and first sought to rectify the
situation by approaching the executive director of SHARE/Head Start in Greenville
County. SHARE/Head Start was the first contact due to the fact that the housing
phase of the Master Plan had inadvertently eradicated and not relocated the
former location of Head Start in Nicholtown. Head Start was in favor of building
a new early learning facility for its return to Nicholtown, and advised the
Nicholtown Representatives to start a collaborative of professionals who could
properly research and fundraise for this effort.
The next step was to approach
organizations with vested interests in children, families, communities, and
education. Greenville community leaders with success in projects like NCFC’s,
people who could guide best practices and outcomes, and Nicholtown community
members and leadership were invited to join the NCFC. Current stakeholders
include local healthcare providers; community finance leadership; local, city, state
and federal organizations with interest in children and families; elected
officials (community, city, state); attorneys; Nicholtown community members;
local universities; the Nicholtown Neighborhood Association; Nicholtown
community centers; marketing professionals; and construction professionals. The
most recent estimated number of NCFC members (as of January 2016) was 36,
including the Project Coordinator and Collaborative Chair.
Collaborative’s
first steps. May
2014, a consultant was hired to begin work on a sustainable strategy for moving
forward with the NCFC Project. Once the assessment of Nicholtown and the
Greenville community was complete, a final presentation was given to the
Nicholtown Early Learning Collaborative and its Stakeholders. Several useful
documents were generated to guide progress, including the “Nicholtown Early
Learning Collaborative (now NCFC) Recommendations” (1).
Recommendations were soon acted upon
following the consultant’s final analysis for NCFC progress, including organization
and structure; volunteer committees to address different aspects of the work;
and hiring a project coordinator. The project coordinator
·
assessed
materials provided by the United Way of Greenville.
·
worked
towards gathering data and tools used by the consultant and other
research/analyst and nonprofit entities to understand the work that had been previously
done, and determine the best way forward in executing the NCFC recommendations
and plan.
·
met
with the consultants to receive data, learn more about the methods and process
for data collection, and hear feedback about the project and its direction.
·
met
with Collaborative members, Chairs of each existing committee, as well as
“priority” people involved with the Collaborative.
·
met
with Head Start leadership, as this was clearly a direction that the NCFC
recommendations and key Collaborative members were in agreement that the NCFC
project should go.
·
placed
high priority on forming strong relationships with leadership at the
recommended site for NCFC programs and progress.
·
sought
relationships with other non-profits working in the neighborhood to understand
what other services were being provided (or not) in the area.
·
began
attending monthly Nicholtown Neighborhood Association meetings to boost face
recognition and relationships with the Nicholtown residents and community.
·
referred
back to the recommendations provided by the consultant, as well as the data
from the community (1) to explore potential partners
missing from the NCFC. High priority was placed on finding resources that could
be placed in Nicholtown to serve both the community and NCFC goals for no cost
to NCFC.
Community
Engagement Events
A
community engagement event was held in late 2015; at least 33 adults and 25
children from the Nicholtown community attended and participated. NCFC
leadership shared progress and gathered feedback on the project, as a result of
the survey data that was collected from them. The purpose of this event was to
involve the Nicholtown community in the NCFC process as active participants in
the project.
Implementing
Existing Greenville Resources into Nicholtown
Leadership
from a local healthcare system, NCFC, and leadership from the identified
Nicholtown community empowerment site met to discuss potential partnerships. The Greenville Health System will
provide a mobile clinic at least once a month that will be parked at the
community hub. Furthermore, discussions between a service for young children
who have special developmental needs, the NCFC, and the mobile clinic have
initiated interest in bringing services to Nicholtown. Additionally, discussions with the Department of Health and
Environmental Control (DHEC) have indicated that there is interest in returning
to Nicholtown to facilitate health needs for families and children.
Trips
to Visit Similar Projects
The ultimate goal of the NCFC,
supported by the Nicholtown Master Plan and the recommendations from the
consultant (1,
8), is to create a
two-generation community empowerment center. The community empowerment center
will place heavy emphasis on early learning, but will also offer support to
children and their families as children grow. Therefore, with these goals in
mind, we decided to visit other successful projects both in the South Carolina
Upstate and the Southeastern U.S. in order to learn from their achievements and
pitfalls. Lessons learned from each visit were reported and discussed at NCFC
meetings.
Findings
and Lessons Learned
Continuing the work and momentum
generated thus far for the NCFC will require several factors, first and
foremost being financial resources. It is difficult to do work on such a large
scale without paid employees, and it is quite impressive that the NCFC has been
able to come as far as it has with limited financial resources. This indicates
that there is interest among stakeholders for this project to succeed; since
this is a project that engages the Nicholtown community, there is also interest
in the project’s success from the community perspective. In order to continue
this trajectory, aside from financial resources, the thoughtful and deliberate
recommendations set forth by the consultant should continue to be followed. Furthermore,
Israel’s (9,
10) and Holden’s (11) guidelines for successful
community engagement work should be followed. Below is a brief list of other
findings and lessons learned:
Data Reviews
·
Reviews
of the data collected by the consultant indicate that there is interest both
within Nicholtown, and in the greater Greenville community in the NCFC project
and its goals, including stakeholders who are already involved in NCFC,
entities who would potentially provide financial support, and the Nicholtown
community members/residents (1).
Stakeholders
·
Each
person comes to the project with her own agenda. This can make achieving the
goals of the NCFC challenging at times, requiring strong leadership,
communication, and negotiation. The group must be unified by the common goal of
serving the children (and families) of Nicholtown.
·
Relationships
with stakeholders must be fostered, and it is essential to keep them engaged in
the project’s progress.
·
It
is fundamentally important to assess current stakeholders in the NCFC project
when considering a new aspect of work that must be done to further the NCFC
goals. As a volunteer Collaborative with only one paid staff member, it is
crucial to sustain and make use of the resources present within the Collaborative.
Review Goals
·
Continue
to re-examine the recommendations set forth by the consultant to ensure that
there are not gaps that could be filled by new stakeholders.
·
Each
person involved in NCFC has a different skillset, and may be able to identify
gaps that others may overlook.
Insights from other projects
·
Site
visits were helpful in considering possible paths forward, ways to address
challenges, team-building and fostering relationships within NCFC,
self-discovery of assets and resources, and gaining concrete concepts of similar
successful.
Conclusion
The NCFC project is an ongoing
project in the heart of Greenville, South Carolina, which is in the Upstate
region of the state. Collaborative members and leadership have worked hard to
make this an inclusive project that engages the community as it progresses. Much
work remains to be done, but a mindful adherence to recommendations from
consultants and community engagement frameworks will guide the project to
successful, community-accepted completion.
References
1. The Strategic
Organization. Nicholtown Early Learning Task Force Recommendations. 2014
October 20, 2014. Report No.
2. The
Nicholtown Early Learning Taskforce Executive Committee. Notes on Vision and
Mission for NELT. [Committee Meeting Notes]. In press 2015.
3. Collins RC.
Head Start: Steps toward a Two-Generation Program Strategy. Young Children.
1993;48(2).
4. Duch H.
Redefining parent involvement in Head Start: a two-generation approach. Early
Child Development and Care. 2005;175(1):23-35.
5. Chase-Lansdale
PL, Brooks-Gunn J. Two-Generation Programs in the Twenty-First Century. The
Future of Children. 2014;24(1):13-39.
6. St. Pierre R,
Layzer JI, Barnes HV. Regenerating two-generation programs: Abt Associates;
1996.
8. Urban Collage
I, URS, Robert Charles Lesser & Co., & J. Peters & Assoc.
Nicholtown Master Plan Final Report. 2004.
9. Israel BA,
Schulz, A. J., Parker, E. A., & Becker, A. B. Review of community-based
research: Assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annual
Review of Public Health. 1998;19:173-202.
10. Israel BA,
Krieger J, Vlahov D, Ciske S, Foley M, Fortin P, et al. Challenges and
facilitating factors in sustaining community-based participatory reserach
partnerships: Lessons learned from the Detroit, New York City, and Seattle
urban research centers. Journal of Urban Health. 2006;83(6):1022-40.
11. Holden RJ,
McDougald Scott AM, Hoonakker PL, Hundt AS, Carayon P. Data collection
challenges in community settings: insights from two field studies of patients
with chronic disease. Quality of Life Research. 2015;24(5):1043-55.
This
is one of a series of bulletins highlighting the use of community psychology in
practice. Comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome. Please direct them
to Tabitha Underwood at underwoodtabitha@gmail.com.
