Community of Hope: A Generative Framework for Partnership

Casey Family Programs, the nation’s largest operating foundation focused on safely reducing the need for foster care in the U.S., has honored Boulder County and our entire network of partners with the prestigious Community of Hope recognition for our visionary work with families and children. Boulder County Housing and Human Services is seizing this opportunity to set in motion a community conversation around building a more family driven, prevention oriented, and holistic safety net.

On Friday, September 26, 2014, we hosted a Community of Hope Summit with about 200 of our community partners and staff. The summit featured both a celebration of the Casey recognition and the beginning of a deeper conversation on the ways we can all work together toward this vision of our safety net.

The framework that is developing out of the Community of Hope is now helping guide our Boulder County Partnerships across Boulder County.

About

Data and Indicators

An important part of our collective work is a data-driven focus on the indicators of health and well-being in our community.

See the details:

Recent Presentations

The affordable housing crisis in Boulder County continues to attract attention. Here are presentations made recently on what we know about the crisis, what we’re doing about it, and where we should focus going forward.

2015 Governing Conference

BCDHHS Director Frank Alexander was a keynote speaker at the 2015 Governing Health and Human Services Summit in Washington, D.C. He was asked to address this question: “How can HHS leaders coordinate systems integration, early intervention, and collective impact strategies to facilitate a new framework for sustainable change?”

Here’s the presentation from that keynote address.

White Paper

Community of Hope White Paper

We have produced a white paper that summarizes some of the common themes that emerged from breakout discussions at the summit. This white paper also envisions some of the next steps in this process. You can view the common Community of Hope: Opportunities and Community of Hope: Challenges that discussion participants saw in terms of strengthening our community’s safety net. And you can find links to video from the summit and other documents below.

We surveyed summit participants and found that a vast majority rated their experience as either good, very good, or excellent. Thanks to all who attended.

Videos

Community of Hope Summit Videos

Dr. David Sanders from Casey Family Programs provided an excellent keynote address at the summit. He focused on the need for identifying areas of prevention opportunity as we look to continue to strengthen families.

Angie Dreier was the host and emcee for the summit. Angie, a Boulder County Child Welfare caseworker, has an excellent view of our safety net from many different perspectives. She shared that – and a sharp-witted look at the work we all do – at the beginning of the summit activities.

Susan Kelly, Senior Executive Fellow with Casey Family Programs, shared her thoughts on what makes Boulder County a Community of Hope, including what makes our work (wrapping families in the prevention oriented supports they need to stabilize) so visionary.

Frank Alexander, Director of the Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services, shared details about the safety net work being done by the department in collaboration with our community partners. Included in his presentation was a look at the Generative Model, a framework the department has adopted to help guide our focus on making the safety net more family driven, prevention oriented, and holistic.

This conversation is just the beginning. We will keep in touch with summit participants and all our partners going forward in multiple ways, including a report on the Community of Hope and email newsletters. We also welcome your feedback at any time by email.

Newsletters

Community of Hope Newsletters

Please sign up for the Community of Hope newsletter!
Sign Up Now

Previous newsletters:

HSSN Extension

On November 4, 2014, Boulder County voters approved a 15-year extension of the Human Services Safety Net Initiative (HSSN) mill levy, which provides an additional $5 million each year in key health and human services safety net services in the community. The Community of Hope conversation will help inform the plan for this funding going forward.

What do our community partners say makes a Community of Hope?

The work done by our community partners is a crucial part of our safety net, and our partners are passionate about the need to continue to develop our Community of Hope. Community of Hope: Partner Stories.