The Fund and PI embarked on a two-part planning phase to allow local partners in the seven communities to spend time exploring potential collaborations and priority issues and actions. This approach also allowed the budding partnerships to influence and shape how PI and the Fund thought about the initiative, within the guardrails of the core principles and guiding criteria. All partners that engaged in the planning period received funding.
Action Planning Period [October 2017-March 2018]
During the Action Planning Period, PI co-hosted regional convenings within the seven communities to share the principles of the Initiative and spark discussion. Subsequently, the hospital partners convened residents, CBOs, and other agencies to explore priority focus areas and to identify a CBO to lead the work as a “backbone organization.”
PI also introduced key foundational tools to support the local partners in developing their proposals so that they could begin to incorporate core concepts and frameworks. This TA was intended to build capacity from the earliest stage and ensure partners were willing to commit to the upstream direction before deciding on strategies and activities. Tools shared included PI’s Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE), Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience (ACE|R), and Spectrum of Prevention frameworks.
Strategic Planning Period [April 2018-November 2018]
During the Strategic Planning Period, Intersections provided time, funding, and technical assistance to address deeper strategy questions and unpack partnership tensions often sidelined in standard, competitive processes. Local partnerships were asked to “form and storm,” intentionally and explicitly considering the challenges of working upstream, as well as identifying dynamics between partners and organizations. The Fund and PI continued to facilitate discussions with potential partners, as requested, to familiarize them with the initiative as a whole, to think about which roles and responsibilities made sense for each partner, and to select the priority issue(s) they were going to address in their communities. This time period ultimately prepared the local partners to submit a more Request for Partnership.
Learn about the planning in the Intersections final report, Building Partnerships and Power for the Future.