All three initiatives; Collaboration, Resources and Learning, and Leadership and Governance, are driven by a focus on advancing equity and inclusion activities in our region.
Collaboration – leveraging the collective power of organizations to create positive impact in our communities.
Thrive in Lynchburg Together – a data-driven cross-sector collaboration in Lynchburg utilizing a partnership with University of Lynchburg’s Research Center.
The goal of Thrive is to improve the quality of life for residents of Lynchburg and the surrounding counties by measuring and tracking key outcomes to inform progress across all sectors of the community. Each sector leader is partnered with University of Lynchburg faculty to 1) select a measurable outcome and 2) track progress using metrics by 3) utilizing existing coalitions in our community.
Current Thrive sectors include:
- Aging
- Health
- Child Abuse/Neglect
- Housing
- Childcare
- Hunger/Food Insecurity
- Education/Scholar Mindset
- Incarceration/Re-entry
- Employment/Workforce
- Mental Health/Substance Use
- Faith
A dashboard of outcomes will be available soon on our website, and a community meeting will be held annually in January to share updates and receive feedback.
Philanthropy Roundtable – a convening of funding organizations and corporate philanthropists to explore how our region’s funders can collectively improve their ability to measure impact in the community.
This funding collaborative is focused on capacity building for our region’s nonprofits. Participants assess the funding landscape for the greater Lynchburg area, and roundtable meetings are held monthly at University of Lynchburg. If you’re a funder in our region and would like to participate, Use this link to sign up or email christy.lucy@communityaccessnetwork.org.
Bedford Area Resource Council (BARC) – PHC assists BARC’s steering committee with coordination of action teams and tracking their progress towards strategic priorities. For more information about BARC, visit www.bedfordarearesourcecouncil.org.
Resources and Learning – providing tools, training, and facilitating conversations that advance equity among our nonprofit organizations and in turn, our community.
To build a thriving and equitable community there can never be enough opportunities for learning. PHC, through its local and regional partnerships, facilitates the following:
- Monthly updates on regional training opportunities and articles to expand the knowledge of equity-based approaches and the collective impact model.
- Hosted trainings to lift the voice of the underserved:
- Bridges out of Poverty – Held June 9th
- Cost of Poverty Experience (tentatively scheduled for fall 2023).
- Local partnerships to facilitate thoughtful conversations around the advancement of equity our region. Details about the first event will be announced this summer!
Leadership and Governance – supporting individuals and organizations to learn or improve equity-centered leadership and governance practices.
A Culture of Yes is a project that places a strategic focus on board diversity – looking at the traditional ways boards identify, recruit and orient members. Community Access Network, with its grassroots history, is uniquely situated to pilot a process of self-reflection, working to further eliminate power imbalances. We’ll then share lessons learned with other nonprofit organizations and work together to identify what is needed for true community engagement and leadership. This project will be launched summer of 2023!
Library of best practices – PHC has pulled together a library of research based best practices to help local organizations close the equity gaps. Use this link to access our library!