Prezi Video: SABHC Sustainability Journey

Prezi: SABHC Sustainability Journey PDF 

The Santa Ana Building Healthy Communities initiative that started 9 years ago belongs to the young people who’ve grown with it, the parents and residents who bet on it, and the organizational partners who stewarded it. The SABHC planning process has evolved, since January 2018 to stay true to this idea, so that what emerges is co-created and owned by the Santa Ana community. We’d like to, therefore, recap where we are now and how far we’ve come.

Our sustainability planning efforts began with a representative committee of SABHC stakeholders and our SABHC Board Committee and with a Learning and Evaluation recap of SABHC 10 Year Strategic Plan. The Planning and Board committees had participants from all three workgroups, org partners both long established and newly formed, and adult and youth residents. The tasks these teams undertook and completed included developing a Mission and Vision statement for the future of the initiative, describing and prioritizing roles and responsibilities, and assessing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats moving forward.

Our facilitators grew to include Abraham Medina, Deborah Phares, Jackie Tran, in addition to Eric Altman. Abraham performed one-on-ones to identify emerging collaborations and explore a shared overarching narrative amongst them. Deborah Phares conducted interviews and research on potential sources of funding for collaborative work post-2020. Jackie Tran collected data and stories on the progress made towards the 17 targeted changes we first drafted in the 10 Year Strategic Plan of SABHC.

What we learned from those one-on-ones was that, although much work was advanced by the committees, many partners did not feel represented, or part of Sustainability Planning.  Our committees, therefore, took a pause, while we created space for All Campaigns/Town Hall convenings of everyone involved with SABHC. In order to better reach adults and youth of the initiative, our facilitator's team grew once more to include adult and youth facilitators.

And we’ve since hosted several Sustainability retreats with organizations, adults, and youth, separately and collectively.  In this way we’ve additionally identified the following:

• Emerging Clusters of Collaboration, Potential Roles, and Root Causes- Organizations, Sep 28th, 2018
• Factors that impact organizations, and how orgs do resident engagement- Organizations, Oct 26, 2018
• First training for Residents on Funders from Deborah Nov 7th, 2018
• Feedback of the initiative, campaign priorities of residents, and ideas for sustainability- Adults, Oct 13th, 2018. Nov 10th, 2018
• Youth webs of resilience, needs, and priorities for sustainability- Youth, dates. (met twice) Nov 17th, Dec 1st
• Ageism Conversation with Adult/Youth Meeting Dec 15th, 2018

So where we are today is with a lot of the raw ingredients on hand, ready for the cooking. (mission, vision, swot, clusters, root causes, needs, requests, etc). But we’ve learned that much like baking with carefully measured ingredients, the magic is in the transformation that occurs under heat.

We have remained open and adaptive, and have evolved the planning process as needed. This has been a process that is leading us.  To be intentional. To look at ourselves compassionately enough to accept what is not working. We can see in our initiative the difficulties of movement building, where not only are our battles waged on an uneven field but also where we inadvertently replicate harm within.

• In bringing adults and youth together, we were able to name the impacts of the stereotypes of age. For example, young people feel their struggles are not acknowledged, and adults sometimes feel forgotten. (12/15/18)
• In bringing adults, youth and orgs together, we were able to name the assumptions we have of each other, and harms and hurts we carry, even as we do our work together. (1/12/19)

And so our sustainability planning seeks the opportunity for transformation not only externally but also within.  We’re inspired by the calls for a solidarity that takes into account the needs of those who organize. We’ve not taken the easy route, and will continue to adapt and evolve as needed.  We know the BHC 2.0 framework is expected by end of 2019, and that our organizational grants will run out over the final months of 2020. With this in mind, our aim is to accomplish the following this year:

• Identify recurring dynamics/issues in organizing as well as potential solutions for a culture of organizing that prevents and addresses harms.
• Find the places of intersect in the clusters of collaboration/ campaign interests, and define if/how we can work together under a different culture of organizing.
• Define our structures moving forward, measures of accountability, and levels of participation.
• Return to a power analysis and funders landscape to consider our areas of priority.
• Identify opportunities for resourcing, and metrics and process to evaluate our work.

We thank you for your willingness and vulnerability and look forward to together creating a culture of organizing that uplifts our humanity and enacts the world we want to see.

Stay engaged!

Be on the lookout for additional emails on updates for Sustainability Planning, and feel free to reach Ana at [email protected], 714-335-1528 or Eric at [email protected] for any questions.