Giving Compass' Take:

• David Garfunkel, Peter Senge, and Jessica Pizarek share how they helped the community in Oceanside come together to improve collectively. 

• How can your community benefit from coming together? 

• Learn more about the need for philanthropy to engage in philanthropy. 

In our work in Oceanside, this deep listening contributed to a new initiative with significant potential. It began in a small community meeting, when a longtime Latino community leader spoke openly about the challenges that he and his community have experienced. Those challenges had been unspoken in the broader community for years, but for a moment in that meeting those challenges were heard and allowed to be spoken in a way that was new. The ripple effects have been significant. Community members, now appreciating how the challenges facing these youth are inextricably linked to the well-being of the whole community, have designed a new pilot program focused on high school success for Latino boys and young men.

A third strategy has been to introduce the idea of systems change to help focus attention on deeper sources of problems. This includes traditional systemic approaches like policy advocacy, but also has started to move into matters beyond the reach of policy alone, like how power dynamics are holding key problems in place. In Staten Island, members of the Equity Alliance believe that one way to shift power dynamics behind inequity is for young people to become more involved in the work. Traditionally, youth involvement has been more in the form of input and engagement in workshops.

The group’s aspiration now is to develop a core group of youth leaders who can participate in all key bodies of the initiative and share decision-making power. This shift from input to inclusion recognizes that the adults who traditionally make decisions cannot fully understand the condition of the youth they are intending to benefit, nor the real opportunities for change.

Read the full article about helping communities come together by David Garfunkel, Peter Senge, and Jessica Pizarek at FSG.