Clients’ Successes

SEI serves a broad cross section of education, health and human service organizations. We often connect or link people together to leverage learning and experiences. This month we want to share the successes and highlight aspects of six different projects conducted for seven different clients.

  1. Childhood Obesity Taskforce Priorities and Planning –  Children’s Hospital of Central California
  2. Washoe County READY FOR LIFE Movement – Nevada Public Education Foundation
  3. Family Engagement for High School Success – United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra and the Washoe County Education Alliance
  4. Family Engagement for High School Success – United Way of Southern Nevada
  5. First 5 Sacramento Region Impact Report (First 5 Commissions for Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, Sutter, Colusa, El Dorado, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus counties)
  6. Constructing Connections Collaborative of Amador County – Amador Child Care Council

 Although the work of these groups varies, they share a common goal of improving outcomes and conditions for the children, youth and families they serve.  We hope you will be as inspired as us to see what can be accomplished when people join together with a common focus.  

Childhood Obesity Prevention

Children’s Hospital of Central California contracted with SEI to provide a situational analysis to its Childhood Obesity Task Force on the current status of efforts throughout Fresno and Madera Counties to address childhood obesity, including what best practices and initiatives are in place. That data was then used by the Task Force to establish priorities and create an implementation plan for addressing them over the next twelve months.

 As a result of this work, the Task Force now has the focus and tools to implement strategies and track progress toward preventing childhood obesity in Fresno and Madera Counties (California).  Twelve months from now they will be able to communicate results of their efforts so that others groups working to end this epidemic that significantly increases children’s risk factors for a range of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and emotional and mental health problems. 

Washoe County READY FOR LIFE Grows Stronger

The purpose Washoe County READY FOR LIFE ® (RFL) is to re-engage and graduate students who have left school prematurely, support youth at risk of dropping out to continue and complete their education, and create a community ethic that values education.  Washoe County RFL is focused on ensuring youth, especially those most at risk, are connected to positive social supports and employed by age 24.  They are “READY FOR LIFE”.

 Convened in Washoe County in 2007 by the Nevada Public Education Foundation, the RFL initiative is comRFL logoprised of public and private organizations, local business, parents and educators. And SEI has been there from the beginning. We were contracted to develop a comprehensive needs assessment and develop a community-driven strategic plan. Once strategic plan was completed, SEI worked with the RFL Steering Committee to officially “launch” the movement at a town hall meeting at Wooster High School in October 2008.

 Since then, SEI has facilitated and supported the RFL working groups as they carry out the goals and objectives of the strategic plan. We have coordinated and documented meeting results, and maintained an extensive knowledgebase of meeting minutes, tools and other materials developed by the workgroups.

 The RFL movement in Washoe County and Northern Nevada just became stronger when the Nevada Public Education Foundation hired the new Ready for Life Program Coordinator for Northern Nevada, Leah Sherbondy.  We are proud to have been of services to RFL. As we transition our role Leah, we know RFL will continue its momentum and achieve great things.

 To learn more about Washoe County READY FOR LIFE or the Nevada Public Education Foundation click on one of these links:

Nevada Public Education Foundation  http://www.readyforlifenv.org/  

READY FOR LIFE Needs Assessment (2008)  http://www.nvpef.org/pdfs/Washoe%20County%20READY%20FOR%20LIFE%20Needs%20Assessment%20Report%20FINAL%205-22-08.pdf

Washoe County READY FOR LIFE http://washoecountyreadyforlife.weebly.com/index.html

 Two Nevada United Ways Selected for Family Engagement for High School Success Initiative

Recent research conducted by Civic Enterprises and Peter Hart Research with America’s Promise Alliance, “On the Front Lines of Schools”  and supported by earlier research findings documented in “A New Wave of Evidence”  by Henderson and Mapp (2002) shows that when families are engaged, students from all backgrounds:

  • Earn higher grades and test scores
  • Enroll in higher-level programs
  • Be promoted and earn credits
  • Adapt well to school and attend regularly
  • Have better social skills and behavior
  • Graduate and go on to higher education or other career pathways

That’s why AT&T and United Way Worldwide (UWW) launched Family Engagement for High School Success (FEHS), with evaluation support from the Harvard Family Research Project.  The initiative is part of United Way’s national strategy to reduce the nation’s dropout rate in half by 2018.

These two organizations, conjunction with the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Communities in Schools, Coalition of Community Schools, and American Association of School Administrators (AASA), selected 15 of the most qualified local United Ways across the country, out of 1,300 eligible to apply, to receive planning grants from the Family Engagement for High School Success initiative. 

Nevada was the only state to receive more than one grant. United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra (UWNNS) and United Way of Southern Nevada (UWSN) were both selected, and began partnering with their local school districts in a six month planning process, which concluded at the end of May. As a result, 18 schools have plans to effectively engage the parents of 2,000 incoming 9th graders this fall.  Nevada’s participation represents 40% of the 5,000 students and 39% of the 46 schools that UWW and AT&T expect to be impacted in the first year of this project. 

SEI was honored to be selected by both United Way organizations to work with them and the local school district partners to design and facilitate the planning processes; and document results, prepare interim reports and final plans to submit to United Way Worldwide and the Harvard Family Research Project.

To learn more about this initiative, visit the following sites:

 Links to the reports mentioned here and other research can be found on the Resources/Leading Research page of SEI’s website.

First 5 Sacramento Region – Impact Report

At a press conference May 25, 2010, eight counties in the Sacramento region announced the release of the “First 5 Sacramento Region 2010 Impact Report.” The region is comprised of Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, Sutter, Colusa, El Dorado, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus counties. The report, developed by SEI in conjunction with the counties, tells the story of the impact that First 5 Commissions in the Sacramento Region have had on supporting and sustaining the health, well being and success of the Region’s youngest children and their families over the past ten years.

 To create the report, SEI gathered and analyzed information about various program areas, including total amount of funding invested, number of counties in the region investing, numbers of children and families served, results achieved and documented through evaluation, and linkages to public data and best practices.

 In the end, a number of significant impacts were identified, some of which include:

  • More children ages 0 to 5 are being born healthy.
  • Fewer children are growing up in poverty.
  • More mothers now receive early prenatal care.
  • More children are receiving oral health care.
  • More children and pregnant women have access to health care.
  • More than $56.7 million in additional funding has been leveraged and secured.
  • Infrastructure and service delivery systems have been enhanced and streamlined to reduce duplication of services, promote web-based universal enrollment and create centralized registries related to immunizations and breastfeeding

 Download the full report or executive summary to learn more about what these counties are down and the impact they are having for children prenatal through age five and their families.

First 5 Sacramento Region Impact Report – Executive Summary FINAL 4-2-10

First 5 Sac Region Impact Report-REVISED FINAL 4-6-10

 Constructing Connections of Amador County Removes Barriers to Quality Child Care

After nearly five years of working together, the Constructing Connections Collaborative of Amador County can point to significant “wins.” This group of parents, professionals and community service providers is focused on streamlining the process for establishing child care centers in Amador County. They have succeeded in getting child care included as a priority in the City of Jackson’s general plan’s land use policies; the City of Ione’s general plan housing element; and, the City of Plymouth’s general plan land use and community character element. Amador County’s general plan, while still in draft form and not yet approved, has included quality child care in the 2030 vision statement and in the land use policies section. The Collaborative received five years of funding and technical assistance from the Low Income Investment Fund. They will now be sustaining their results through the community partners.

 Members of the Collaborative Team

Members of the Collaborative Team, November 2009

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 2:44 pm.