Beginning with communities to design an advisory board
...the Family Resiliency Center (FRC) welcomed 28 representatives from local community agencies, organizations, and service providers to the Champaign Public Library to participate in a workshop informing the design of a Community Advisory Board (CAB) for the Center. This report summarizes the workshop’s findings, including topics of interest, values, and motivations. It also addresses questions that arose across the morning’s activities and conversations.
Overall, an overwhelming number of workshop participants desired an action- and results-oriented CAB that would promote effective collaboration and positive communication to make achievable change.
Three major topics of interest arose out of the workshop in reply to the prompt, “What priority areas of work or initiatives should the CAB and FRC engage in?”: mental health and well-being, youth and families, and basic needs. Many participants also emphasized the importance that the CAB have a driving focus with set achievable goals accompanied by action steps to reach intermediate milestones. One repeated phrase was that the CAB should be “not just talk.” Recommended priority initiatives were:
Mental health: Over one-third of responses related to topics surrounding mental health and well-being. These responses often mentioned a desire for healthy and resilient communities and a focus on addressing issues related to loneliness and isolation as well as mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.
Youth & families: Approximately one-quarter of responses revolved around the topic of youth and families. These responses related to youth advocacy, community building and belonging, conflict resolution, and after school or alternative education programs.
Basic needs & root causes: Another one-quarter of responses mentioned basic needs, often as a way of emphasizing the importance of addressing the root causes of inequity and giving concrete form to a particular root cause. The three basic needs mentioned most frequently were safe and affordable housing, improved transportation and infrastructure, and food security.
The idea of focus also appeared across prompts in participant responses and in the exit survey, which afforded an opportunity for more extended written feedback.
When asked, “What were the most valuable components of or takeaways from this event?” responses included: “a group that is hyper focused on one issue could have a big impact,” “narrowing scope and focus,” and “We need to get focused among ourselves and relieve the community.”
Above all, participants desired a collaborative environment that is positive without sacrificing efficacy. The positive qualities of this environment would allow “everyone to speak their truth,” “feel heard,” and be “open to difficult conversations” through “listening despite volume, style, or credentials.”
At the same time, this “unconditional positive regard” should not hinder the CAB’s ability to unite parties in working toward a common goal—ideally, a “big issue” that spans sectors, organizations, and community members. The CAB’s collaborative culture should break down silos while allowing participants to see their input reflected in the CAB’s work, which ought to have direct impact on and precipitate real change for community members.
A CAB with a collaborative culture that listens openly while making real progress toward tangible goals should also be resident-driven and, therefore, accessible. It should include a variety of voices across ages and sectors and should be able to accommodate diverse scheduling needs like work calendars and childcare concerns.
The workshop exposed long-standing questions about the difficult historical relationship between the University of Illinois and the residents of Champaign-Urbana, about barriers to inter-agency collaboration, and about the nature and importance of “true” community representation in the CAB’s makeup. FRC remains committed to not repeating exclusionary practices of the past and to ensuring that we give back. We look forward to being part of the response to these questions, whether acting as a voice to elevate these concerns, incorporating them into the CAB itself, or responding in other ways.
We want to hear your voice! If you would like to be part of future FRC activities—participating in next steps for the CAB, joining the Collaboratory, or receiving the FRC newsletter—email familyresiliency@illinois.edu or further explore this site to find out how to get involved with family, child, youth, and community-based initiatives as we work to Make Thriving the Norm™.
...to all workshop participants for taking time to offer their valuable perspectives at this workshop. The 36 total participants represent the following 29 agencies, organizations, and service providers:
Business Elevator
Carle Health System
Champaign County Community Coalition
Champaign County Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities Boards
Champaign Park District
Champaign Unit 4 School District
Champaign-Urbana Public Health District
Champaign-Urbana Trauma & Resilience Initiative
Child Development Lab
City of Champaign Equity & Engagement Department
Community Foundation of East Central Illinois
Community Learning Lab
Developmental Services Center
Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club
Driven to Reach Excellence & Academic Achievement for Males (DREAAM)
Eastern Illinois Foodbank
Family and Community Engaged STEAMM
Feeding Our Kids
H3 Harm Healing Hope
Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County
Helping Our Youth Change Everyday (HOYCE) Center
Housing Authority of Champaign County
Illinois Extension
Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute
Rosecrance Behavioral Health
Stephens Family YMCA
The Autism Program & Illinois Neurodiversity Initiative
United Way of Champaign County
Urbana Park District