‘Reversing the Cycle of Santa Paula Poverty’ subject of Town Hall meeting
February 17, 2017
Santa Paula News
“Reversing the Cycle of Poverty in Santa Paula” is the focus of a Town Hall community meeting to be held Tuesday, February 21 at the Community Center from 5:30, when registration begins, to 8 p.m.
The free event will feature a discussion of how Santa Paulans can work together as a community to address current issues related to local poverty as well as new strategies to reduce poverty in our community.
Hosted by the Santa Paula Collective Impact Project (SPCIP) and Santa Paula Latino Town Hall (LTH), the meeting will focus on challenges associated with issues related to local poverty, which noted organizers, “Continue to adversely impact the quality of life for our local residents.”
More than 50 leaders from local organizations and the general public have been invited to the Town Hall meeting to assist in this endeavor; Santa Paula has one of the highest poverty rates in Ventura County and is among the lowest in median income.
“Your participation,” according to SPCIP and LTH, “will help us gather community input on strategies and projects to address these challenges.”
The SPCIP has been in the works for more than a year with the orientation meeting held in September to outline the goal and objectives of the SPCIP where city, education and community representatives were invited to engage.
According to SPCIP, participants were intentionally selected to represent a broad cross section of the community. The SPCIP approach or philosophy was founded on the belief that no single organization, however innovative or powerful, can accomplish social change alone via isolated impact. Large-scale social change requires broad, cross-sector coordination from a wide variety of backgrounds to ensure multiple perspectives via collective impact.
The foundation, according to SPCIP, of collective impact is to “build relationships, capacity and trust among its collaborators. Many organizations across the country have attempted to solve social issues by collaboration for decades without results. The vast majority lack the elements of success that enable collective impact initiatives to achieve a sustained alignment of efforts.”
The five elements of collective impact are: 1) Common Agenda requires all to have a shared vision for change, 2) Shared measurements for success, 3) Mutually reinforcing activities in which participants undertake specific activities at which they excel in a way that supports and is coordinated with the actions of others, 4) Continuous communication which requires trust and common motivation among non-profits, city and county government agencies, 5) Backbone Support Organization is necessary to create and manage collective impact.
“While Santa Paula may face many challenges when it comes to ensuring that all residents have the support they need to be safe, healthy and thriving, coordinating efforts to reach those in need can create greater access opportunities and more effective use of resources.
More than 50 community members attended the September session including elected officials as well as Ventura County Public Health, Behavioral Health and Human Services representatives and LTH leaders, among others.
The Community Center is located at 530 W. Main St.
This upcoming Town Hall meeting was made possible with funding from the California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention. Any opinions, findings, conclusions and or recommendations expressed are those of the Santa Paula Latino Town Hall and do not necessarily reflect the views of the California Department of Social Services.
