By Christina Helmick
Earlier this month, the Prosper Waco added two new South Waco members to the Community Engagement Council. 1SG (retired) Leonard Montelongo Jr. and Sarah Guajardo, both born and raised in Waco, are grassroots community members who believe that by engaging the community, the Prosper Waco initiative will move forward with the community’s voice guiding the work.
1SG (Ret.) Leonard Montelongo Jr. attended all Waco ISD schools growing up and is a graduate of University High School. He served in the United States Army just shy of 23 years and is currently the Senior Army Instructor for JROTC at University High School. He is a member of the American GI Forum and the American Legion of McLennan County. He earned his bachelor’s degree from National Louis University from McLean, Virginia.
Sarah Guajardo is a lifelong resident of South Waco and graduated from University High School. She currently works as an administrative assistant at the Mercedes Benz of Waco. She received her certificates in secretarial training and medical secretary from McLennan Community College. Sarah currently serves as a member and former secretary of La Benemerita Sociedad Mutualista Mexicana De Jornaleros (Mutualista) and as a member of Mighty Wind Worship Center. While living in South Waco, she has served as president of Southern Little League and as a volunteer for the Heart of Texas Young Marines. Sarah is a proud mother of four and grandmother of two.
Both Leonard and Sarah, and the rest of Community Engagement Council, are actively engaging the community through house meetings and various community events. For example, Leonard and Sarah attended University High School’s Bootcamp event to connect with parents and talk with them about Prosper Waco’s Get Help Locally resource guide. The council also participated in the Central Texas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Family Expo event held on Feb. 13. The Family Expo, which had more than 1,500 attendees, gave the Community Engagement Council the opportunity to meet, connect and interact with community members from all over the Waco area. The council is actively planning house meetings, which will allow residents of Waco to join small, intimate conversations to talk about the issues they face in their own community and about how as a community we can work to address the goals of the Prosper Waco initiative.
Needless to say, the Prosper Waco Community Engagement Council is working hard to make sure the community’s voice is guiding the work of the Prosper Waco initiative. If you’re looking for a way to have your voice heard or to get involved in the Prosper Waco initiative, contacting the Community Engagement Council is the way to go! Email [email protected] and someone from the council will email you back as soon as they can. You can also call 254-741-0081 and the Prosper Waco team will connect you to the Community Engagement Council member for the area of Waco you live in.
I’ll end with some thoughts from Ruth Graham, one of Prosper Waco’s East Waco Community Engagement Council members. Her thoughts below reflect on engaging the community in general, and how each of us can keep in mind how to best connect with those we are trying to serve.
“Change is possible. I’ve seen it firsthand. Results are achievable with the right ingredients. Who are we to expect them to change without changing our own mindsets? What are we exhibiting in our speed and body language to this group we’re offering to help? How do we listen to and engage those whom we do not know or possibly fear? Let us start with genuine sincerity. Let us add a heap of acceptance. Let us fill it with diversity. Let us roll in the lovely accents. Let us remix the color styles. Let the ingredients in us inspire the change for the results we desire to achieve.”
We’re social! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest and greatest updates on the Prosper Waco initiative, the hard work our community partners are doing for Waco and the great work of the Prosper Waco Community Engagement Council!
Christina Helmick is the director of communication at Prosper Waco. She is a recent graduate of Baylor University with a BA in Journalism, Public Relations & New Media. Originally she is from Washington, D.C., but has stayed in Waco post-graduation. She is an active mentor at J.H. Hines Elementary School, enjoys spending time with her family and watching Baylor football. Sic ’em Bears!
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.
by Christina Helmick
The start of a new year means starting new things, right? Prosper Waco is starting the new year by working on collaborative and partner-led projects, supporting and facilitating collaborative grant applications, and engaging the community each step of the way. The projects the Prosper Waco backbone and community partners are working on address the goals of the initiative’s common agenda.
What are the specific projects?
There are numerous collaborative projects the Prosper Waco backbone and community partners are currently working on, such as the Waco Foundational Employment Network, Community Health Worker program and Project Link. Skillpoint Alliance and Family Health Center Advanced Care Management are two partner-led projects we are currently working on.
As the backbone organization, we are currently supporting and facilitating two collaborative grant applications, which are the System of Care grant and the HOPES grant. Supporting the application process of these grants is an effort to capture resources for our entire Waco community.
Each project advances the common agenda of the Prosper Waco initiative and has been reviewed and discussed by Prosper Waco working groups and steering committees.
How can I learn more about the projects?
We’ve created a “What To Expect In 2016” report for you to download to learn more about the projects the Prosper Waco backbone organization and community partners are currently working on. As an extra bonus, we’ve included in the report a master calendar of events for 2016 and Prosper Waco’s strategic plan for community engagement.
Download the report and contact us with your feedback, questions or comments. You can contact us by calling 254-741-0081 or sending an email to [email protected].
How can I become involved in the Prosper Waco initiative in 2016?
There are multiple ways you can become involved in the Prosper Waco initiative. Here is a list of a few ways you can become involved:
Volunteer: There are various opportunities for you to volunteer in our community, from one-time events to weekly opportunities. Volunteer opportunities range from mentoring youth in Waco to facilitating financial literacy education classes with job training programs. Check out the Get Involved tab on our website to learn more.
Connect: The Prosper Waco Community Engagement Council wants to connect with YOU! If you are interested in having your voice heard, helping guide the work of the initiative, and want to know who you can reach out to in your neighborhood for information regarding the initiative, email [email protected] and a community engagement council member from your neighborhood will contact you.
Attend: Our working group and steering committees are open to all community members. Visit the events tab on our website to learn about the meeting times, dates and locations. Don’t worry if you can’t make the meetings-we take notes at every meeting and would be happy to send them your way!
Subscribe: Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and stay abreast of the Prosper Waco initiative.
We know there isn’t a silver bullet to addressing the poverty issues in our community, but with the community voice guiding the work and the hard work of our community partners, collectively we can make Waco the best community it can be.
Contact us! Call us at 254-741-0081 or send an email to [email protected].
Christina Helmick is the director of communication at Prosper Waco. She is a recent graduate of Baylor University with a BA in Journalism, Public Relations & New Media. Originally she is from Washington, D.C., but has stayed in Waco post-graduation. She is an active mentor at J.H. Hines Elementary School, enjoys spending time with her family and watching Baylor football. Sic ’em Bears!
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.
By Matthew Polk
Last Tuesday, we had the opportunity to have dinner and conversation with community members in East Waco about how they would achieve the Prosper Waco goals in their community. The Prosper Waco community engagement council and the Northeast Riverside Neighborhood Association partnered to bring the Prosper Waco dialogue to East Waco. Some two dozen local residents came out to chew on ideas developed by the Prosper Waco steering committees for achieving the our community’s goals to improve the education, health, and financial security of Wacoans.
There is much to say about our community, both its strengths and challenges. To focus the conversation, members of the Prosper Waco community engagement council guided the conversation with questions focused on three specific initiative efforts:
- Preparing all children to be successful in Kindergarten by engaging parents in their child’s early education and connecting them to resources like high-quality childcare
- Developing a community health worker program to train community members on health issues and empower them to work with their family, friends, and neighbors to better access the healthcare available in our community
- Making new job training opportunities available, including full-time training courses that last just a few weeks and programs specifically designed for youth (16-24 year olds)
There is no “one size fits all” community program—different neighborhoods, even different families, face different challenges and need different things. Whether the programs listed above will work and how they can work best are things that each neighborhood has to decide for itself.
This Wednesday night (December 9) , the community conversation will move to South Waco (Maranatha Church at 2200 Ross Ave.) at 6:00pm. If you live in South Waco, please be part of this event! You do not need to reserve a spot, just come have dinner and be part of the discussion. And if you live in North Waco, join us on Thursday night (December 10) at 6:00pm at Greater New Light Missionary Baptist Church (925 N. 18th St.). At both events, we’ll be focusing on the three topics listed above, but there will be plenty of opportunity to provide thoughts and ideas on other issues that the Prosper Waco initiative is working on.
We know that Wacoans (and especially Act Locally Waco readers!) care about Waco. Even if you can’t attend community meetings, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to stay informed on the Prosper Waco initiative and be part of the conversation about how our community is doing on the most important issues: education, health, and financial security for all members of our community. If you have ideas about what it takes to improve education, health, and financial security in your community, don’t hesitate to reach out. In fact, you can use our new community engagement email address: [email protected]!
Send an email to us at this address and you’ll get a reply either from a Prosper Waco staffer or a member of the Prosper Waco community engagement council—a community member who lives in your neck of the woods. Either way, every comment and idea is important and helps guide where this community initiative goes!
This Act Locally Waco Blog post was written by Matthew Polk. Matthew is Executive Director of Prosper Waco. Prior to that, he served as Superintendent of Rapoport Academy Public School. He and his wife attended Baylor, and after spending a few years in the northeast, they returned to Waco to raise their family. They have four children, ages 8 to 3 months. You can contact him at [email protected].
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.
by Matthew Polk
The Prosper Waco initiative is about setting bold goals for positive change in our community and finding ways to reach them. The Prosper Waco steering committees of community members have set goals around the following issues that our community wants to reach by 2020:
- More kids being ready to learn when they start Kindergarten
- More students (and adults) finishing a college degree or certificate that will get them a good job
- More people knowing where they need to go to get the best healthcare…and being able to afford it
- More people living a healthy lifestyle and losing weight
- More women receiving the healthcare they need to make sure they and their babies are healthy
- More community members reporting good mental health
- More youth (16-24 year olds) getting a job
- More people getting the job training they need to make a better living
- More people being able to save for their future
All of these things sound like positive change, but it can be hard to wrap your head around how we know whether we are moving in the right direction. To make it as easy as possible to visualize where we stand on each of these goals and whether we are going in the right direction, we have created a ‘data dashboard’ on the Prosper Waco website (www.prosperwaco.org).
When you visit the site, click ‘The Goals’ on the main menu. You will see three icons representing the Education, Health, and Financial Security goals. Click on one of the icons for a brief explanation of each goal and how we are measuring it. You can click the tab for each goal to see a chart depicting where we stand based on the data that is currently available.
Over time, we will continue to track the indicators associated with each goal and add that data to the charts so that we can all see whether we are going in the right direction. Is the number of Kindergarten-ready students going up? Is the number of overweight and obese adults in our community going down? We’ll all be able to see it as we continue to track our progress.
But be patient! This big-picture data about our community won’t change overnight…these are big needles that take a lot of effort to move in the right direction. In fact, we can’t snap our fingers and collect this data every day, or even every month. Much of this data is collected on an annual basis through a variety of local, state, and national instruments. That’s why our community has given itself five years to make the difference we want to make on these big, important issues.
If you are the kind of person who ‘reads the fine print’ and always wants to know the details, the data dashboard may be only the tip of the iceberg of what you want to know about our community. For you, we have more! Keep an eye on ‘The Goals’ page for the community scorecard that we will post by the end of November.
This scorecard is a more in-depth report on a wide range of indicators about our community. It puts the Prosper Waco initiative goals in context by providing additional data that “tells the whole story.” The initiative goals are important markers of positive change for our community, but we all know that one piece of information by itself doesn’t always paint the whole picture. The community scorecard collects many different data points and explains them in a straightforward way.
We know that Wacoans (and especially Act Locally Waco readers!) care about Waco. Even if data and numbers aren’t your thing, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to keep up with how our community is doing on the most important issues: education, health, and financial security for all members of our community.
If you have any questions about any of the information you find on our website, or if you have ideas about what it takes to improve education, health, and financial security in your community, don’t hesitate to reach out. In fact, you can use our new community engagement email address: [email protected]!
Send an email to us at this address and you’ll get a reply either from a Prosper Waco staffer or a member of the Prosper Waco community engagement council—a community member who lives in your neck of the woods. Either way, every comment and idea is important and helps guide where this community initiative goes!
This Act Locally Waco Blog post was written by Matthew Polk. Matthew is Executive Director of Prosper Waco. Prior to that, he served as Superintendent of Rapoport Academy Public School. He and his wife attended Baylor, and after spending a few years in the northeast, they returned to Waco to raise their family. They have four children, ages 8 to 3 months. You can contact him at [email protected].
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.
By Matthew Polk
Over the last few weeks, Prosper Waco working groups have been brainstorming ideas of collaborative ways to reach the measurable goals established by the Prosper Waco steering committees. At the same time, the Prosper Waco Community Engagement Council has been reaching out to people throughout the community to get their input and ideas about how this community initiative should move forward.
What are the Prosper Waco goals, again? Prosper Waco is about:
- More kids being ready to learn when they start Kindergarten
- More students (and adults) finishing a college degree or certificate that will get them a good job
- More people knowing where they need to go to get the best healthcare…and being able to afford it
- More people living a healthy lifestyle and losing weight
- More women receiving the healthcare they need to make sure they and their babies are healthy
- More community members reporting good mental health
- More youth (16-24 year olds) getting a job
- More people getting the job training they need to make a better living
- More people being able to save for their future
To learn more about the specific goals associated with each of the points above and how we plan to measure them, visit our website (www.prosperwaco.org) and click on ‘The Goals.’
In the month of October, the Prosper Waco steering committees will reconvene to prioritize the ideas that our working groups have developed. There are many good ideas for things to be done in our community to help move toward our goals, and the steering committees have the job of deciding which strategies are most promising. But even then it will be hard to implement strategies to address every goal across the community at the same time.
It will be important for each part of Waco to decide which of these things is the highest priority for their community. The East Waco community may want to start working on strategies that promote healthy lifestyles and weight loss, while South Waco may want to start by addressing youth employment. North Waco may be most interested in finding ways to help more people finish college degrees and certificates. This is why we need to have an ongoing community conversation about where the Prosper Waco initiative is headed and which of the initiative’s goals are most relevant for each of Waco’s communities.
If you’re still wondering how you can be involved in the work of Prosper Waco, here are some ideas:
Give your thoughts: email our Community Engagement Coordinator, Jillian ([email protected]) and she will connect you to a member of our community engagement council who lives nearest you. Their role is to hear from community members and to make sure that ideas from the community are part of the discussion.
Join the work: if you have the time and flexibility to join the meeting of Prosper Waco partners who are committed to working together, you are invited to join us. You do not have to represent an organization or be a professional expert—any community member who is willing to help can be part of the working groups focused on education, health, and financial security issues.
Tell a friend: tell someone else about the Prosper Waco initiative and point them toward our website or Facebook page. If they are looking for opportunities to improve their education, health, or financial security, help them navigate the Get Help Locally page of our website to find what they need. If they can’t find what they need, tell them to call us and we’ll help them find the information they’re looking for.
Volunteer: by volunteering with one of the many partner organizations within the Prosper Waco initiative, you are directly contributing to the success of this community initiative. If you want to help but don’t know where to start, take a look at the Affiliates page of our website to find an organization that is committed to the Prosper Waco initiative. Or give us a call at (254) 741-0081 and we can connect you with a volunteer opportunity that will help move our community forward.
This Act Locally Waco Blog post was written by Matthew Polk. Matthew is Executive Director of Prosper Waco. Prior to that, he served as Superintendent of Rapoport Academy Public School. He and his wife attended Baylor, and after spending a few years in the northeast, they returned to Waco to raise their family. They have four children, ages 8 to 3 months. You can contact him at [email protected].
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.
By Matthew Polk
The Prosper Waco initiative only works if community members come up with ideas that we can put into action together. You know more about your life and your community than anyone. You know what it will take for you to be able to take the next step toward success.
Prosper Waco is about:
- More kids being ready to learn when they start Kindergarten
- More students (and adults) finishing a college degree or certificate that will get them a good job
- More people knowing where they need to go to get the best healthcare…and being able to afford it
- More people living a healthy lifestyle and losing weight
- More youth (16-24 year olds) getting a job
- More people getting the job training they need to make a better living
- More people being able to save for their future
These are things we all want. There are ways to make them happen for people in our community. The City of Waco and this community are serious about helping people move forward successfully. But we can’t solve your problems without you. We need to work together to find answers to these challenges.
How can you help? Come share your ideas about how best to help people in our community improve their education, health, and financial security.
Day: Thursday, September, 17th
Time: 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Where: City of Waco Multi-Purpose Building on Quinn Campus (next to the Doris Miller Y)
Details: FREE FOOD! FREE CHILDCARE!
(Thanks to our awesome partners at the Doris Miller Y for working with the kids!)
No need to RSVP. Bring yourself and invite others. This is a chance for us to have a conscious community discussion about how we can work together to help people improve their education, health, and financial security. You don’t need to know anything about Prosper Waco to be able to contribute to the conversation.
People want to invest in a community that is working together. Next week will be the first visit of our partners from the National Resource Network (NRN). This team of experts is funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to assist cities that are dealing with the impact of poverty.
The NRN team visited Waco in June and was impressed with the City leadership and their support of the Prosper Waco initiative. Like many others, the NRN team commented that Waco is ahead of many other cities in taking a coordinated approach to addressing poverty-related issues and helping people improve their education, health, and financial security.
The NRN experts will be visiting Waco on a monthly basis over the next year in order to help our community implement the strategies that we decide are the best bets for achieving the Prosper Waco goals listed above. Because they have worked with cities facing similar challenges across the country, the NRN team will be able to help us identify the best practices for doing work related to improving education, addressing community health needs, and developing the local workforce.
Next week, the NRN team will be meeting with a large number of people who are involved in the Prosper Waco initiative. When they return in October, we want to be able to share with them more feedback from the community about what needs to be done to make Prosper Waco a success. This is why we need you to be part of the discussion on September 17th.
Continue to stay informed about the Prosper Waco initiative and share what you learn with your friends and neighbors. Visit our website—www.prosperwaco.org—to find links to our monthly show on the City’s cable channel. Sign up for our email newsletter at the top of the homepage or click Contact to send us a quick comment or question. Check out the Calendar to see when various working groups are meeting, and click Get Help Locally to find resources for improving your education, health, and financial security.
Feel free to call us anytime at (254) 741-0081 for more information.
This Act Locally Waco Blog post was written by Matthew Polk. Matthew is Executive Director of Prosper Waco. Prior to that, he served as Superintendent of Rapoport Academy Public School. He and his wife attended Baylor, and after spending a few years in the northeast, they returned to Waco to raise their family. They have four children, ages 8 to 3 months. You can contact him at [email protected].
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.
By Matthew Polk
Prosper Waco has picked up momentum over the last several weeks! The Prosper Waco Board of Directors ratified the measurable goals developed by the three Steering Committees, and working groups focused on each of the goals have begun meeting to develop collaborative strategies for achieving them.
These working groups, centered on each of the Education, Health, and Financial Security goals, serve as a venue for partners to dialogue about strategies that can move our community forward. This is the nitty-gritty—community members coming together to sit down and dive deep into conversations that will lead to implementable strategies.
Each working group has met at least once in the past couple of weeks. Working groups will continue to meet over the next two months. Then, in October, each group will present the strategies they have developed to their Steering Committee.
Here is a quick update on the progress of each working group. For full minutes from each working group and a calendar of working group meetings, please visit our website.
Education
Kindergarten Readiness: Members of this working group are focusing on increasing the percentage of kindergarten-ready students in our community. Numerous early childhood organizations were represented in this meeting. Dr. Mary Konrad, Early Childhood Education Coordinator for Waco ISD, spoke about the pre-K assessment that the district uses to assess each child’s readiness to succeed in Kindergarten. Members discussed ways to align their work around the school readiness components identified by WISD and created a list of key partners in the Waco community whose work impacts the success of children as they enter school.
Post-Secondary Success: Members are focused on doubling the percentage of economically-disadvantaged students who complete a workforce certificate or college degree. The discussion of the definition of workforce certificate was discussed, and various resources were distributed to the group so that a collective definition could be agreed upon at the next meeting. The group also compiled a list of additional partners needed to drive a community-wide approach to post-secondary success.
Family Engagement working group discusses possible strategies to increase family engagement.
Family Engagement: Although there is not a measurable goal directly related to this working group, the Education Steering Committee recognized from the outset that family engagement is a priority issue for improving education in our community. Molly Young, Waco ISD’s Director of Community Development, is the chair of this group. In its last meeting, group members discussed different strategies to best engage families in the educational process and how to connect Waco families to community resources.
Health
Access to Care: The goals for this working group are to the increase percentage of people covered by health insurance by at least 1 percent per year and to decrease the percentage of people utilizing the ER as a source of primary care by 10 percent. Like the Obesity and Women’s Health working groups, the Access to Care working group has been active for the last couple of years as part of the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) committee, one of the initiatives that laid the foundation for Prosper Waco.
Obesity: This working group discussed strategies around high, medium and low impact ways to reduce obesity among Waco residents and how to best utilize the resources that are already in place. For example, a strategy to increase activity levels in adults and children is to use the joint-use agreement (JUA) facilities around the Waco community that are available to residents. Also, the strategy of an active living plan based on evidence-based strategies for ways residents can become active and lead healthier lifestyles was a main topic of conversation.
Women’s Health working group meets to discuss what other organizations should be included in their meetings.
Women’s Health: Members of the women’s health group are thoughtfully considering how best to collect data to drive evidence-based strategies for meeting their goals. The group agreed to look at what other communities have done in terms of programs to reduce disparities of poor birth outcomes, increase the percentage of women receiving annual preventive care, and reduce the rate of teen pregnancy across all racial groups.
Mental Health: A variety of mental health professionals attended this meeting. Existing mental health resources were identified, and the group discussed other strategies targeted at decreasing use of local emergency rooms for mental health treatment and improving the “poor mental health days” component of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s County Health Rankings to the Texas average.
Financial Security
Employment: We had a great turn out at this meeting. During the first meeting, members spoke about who else from the community should be included to add depth to the working group. Dialogue focused on what strategies would increase employment of Waco residents ages 16-24, with the goal of cutting unemployment of this group by half over the next five years.
Income working group meets to strategize how to get employers to the round table.
Income: The income working group is focused on connecting Waco-area residents to job training and employment opportunities in order to increase the median income of people living in our community with a focus on those earning the least. The group’s discussion focused on how to build a pipeline that would effectively connect workers to employers so that opportunities for earning more income are available to more people in the community and employers benefit from a more skilled workforce.
Wealth: Helping our community build wealth means helping more families build a foundation for financial security in their lives. This starts with providing people in our community access to tools and information for managing their money and building savings that will get them through financial ups and downs. For others, building wealth means moving toward homeownership or investing in others assets that will improve their family’s net worth and financial security.
Typically, working groups meet twice a month based on the best available time for the members. You can check the calendar on our website for a list of all past and upcoming meetings! Working groups are open to all community members, regardless of your expertise in the three impact areas. Having different perspectives from community members at the working group meetings will lead to better, well-rounded strategies that will positively impact a broader range of Waco residents.
We know there are many people in the community who want to be part of the Prosper Waco initiative but cannot meet during the day due to their jobs or other responsibilities. We understand this and are working to figure out an evening time that works best for community members to be part of the discussion about meeting our shared goals.
To become involved in a working group, please email our Community Engagement Coordinator, Jillian, at [email protected], or call her at 254-741-0081. Get involved in this community-wide initiative and have a positive impact on your community!
This Act Locally Waco Blog post was written by Matthew Polk. Matthew is Executive Director of Prosper Waco. Prior to that, he served as Superintendent of Rapoport Academy Public School. He and his wife attended Baylor, and after spending a few years in the northeast, they returned to Waco to raise their family. They have four children, ages 8 to 3 months. You can contact him at [email protected].
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.
By Matthew Polk
For the last three months, the Prosper Waco Education, Health, and Financial Security steering committees have been working to identify the most important issues facing our community and setting measurable goals for how we can work together to make positive change for people in Waco. They have reviewed data and community input and debated which issues should be attacked first. While there are some details to be finalized, the committees have reached consensus on a set of goals that will form the common agenda of the Prosper Waco initiative. These are big goals—goals that will take a true community effort to achieve. And if we achieve them, the entire community will benefit. What are these goals?
Education
Kindergarten Readiness: For children to succeed in school, they have to be prepared to learn when they start Kindergarten. This means that they need a healthy start in life so that they develop strong bodies and brains. It also means that they need to know certain things (like letters and numbers) that will help them understand what the teacher is teaching so that they can stay on track academically. The Prosper Waco initiative will work to make sure that parents and families have the resources and information they need to help their children grow and learn so that more students in Waco are ready for Kindergarten.
Post-secondary completion: Students who complete a college degree or a workforce certificate have a better chance of getting a job that will provide enough income for them to support themselves and their families. To help our community members move out of poverty, we need to help more students find the college degree or certificate that is right for them and give them the support they need to finish that program. The more community members who have workforce training or college degrees, the stronger our local economy will be.
Health
Access to Care: Too many people in our community can’t afford to see the doctor when they are sick. This means that too many people end up visiting the hospital Emergency Room when they could have saved time and money by seeing a doctor for a minor illness. The more community members who have health insurance and can afford to see the doctor rather than visiting the ER, the healthier we will be. And when more people get the primary care they need, our hospitals and emergency rooms can do an even better job of serving those who really need them.
Obesity: Obesity is a health challenge facing more and more Americans. Many communities struggle to build a culture of health that will encourage all community members to take care of their bodies so that they can be as healthy as possible. Reducing obesity by helping Wacoans understand their health, stay active, and make better food choices is a goal of the Prosper Waco initiative.
Women’s Health: Our community’s health data shows that too few women get the annual checkups they need to stay healthy. When pregnant women don’t have access to good healthcare, their babies can be born unhealthy. Babies born to teenage mothers often have worse health and education outcomes than their peers. The Prosper Waco initiative will work to make sure that all women have access to the healthcare they need and that all babies born in our community have the best chance to be born strong and healthy.
Mental Health: Mental health issues affect all types of people, regardless of race or class. Effectively serving the mental health needs of a diverse community is challenging. A lack of mental health resources means that many people must rely on the hospital Emergency Room for mental health needs. Often these patients do not receive the type of care that they most need. The Prosper Waco initiative will work to increase access to mental health resources for our community.
Financial Security
Employment: Having a paying job is the first step to financial security. There are nearly 2,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 in our community who are not enrolled in school and do not have a job. Connecting these young people to the workforce will give them the chance to build financial security and will strengthen our local economy.
Income: Many of our community members are working hard to make ends meet, but their paycheck isn’t enough to provide real financial security for their families. The best way to increase the income of hard-working people in our community is to help get a job that pays enough to support themselves and their family. This could mean helping them develop new job skills or helping them overcome barriers such as transportation or child care needs that may be blocking their ability to get a job that pays enough.
Wealth: Financial Security means having enough to be sure that your family can handle a financial bump in the road. Wealth is measured by a family’s assets—how much it can save and invest, how much the home it owns is worth, etc. Helping families understand how to build assets that will provide more financial security is a goal of the Prosper Waco initiative.
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If we can achieve the goals set by the Prosper Waco steering committees, more people in our community will be able to get a good education, find a job that supports their family, and make sure that they and their family stay healthy. If you are interested in how we will measure our progress toward these goals, be watching our website — www.prosperwaco.org —where we will be posting more information about the initiative’s goals, the data that supports them, and our progress toward achieving them.
Are you interested in helping our community work toward these goals? We are building working groups that will focus on each of the goals listed above. If you want to be part of the process of developing strategies for achieving these goals in your community, we welcome you to join the Prosper Waco team. You can email Jillian Obenoskey, our Community Engagement Coordinator, at [email protected], or call her at 741-0081 to learn more about how you can be involved.
You don’t have to be an expert in Education, Health, or Financial Security to help our community achieve the goals of Prosper Waco. You just have to be willing to contribute your ideas and energy to coming up with creative ways to help people in our community measurably improve their lives.
Matthew Polk is Executive Director of Prosper Waco. Prior to that, he served as Superintendent of Rapoport Academy Public School. He and his wife attended Baylor, and after spending a few years in the northeast, they returned to Waco to raise their family. They have four children, ages 8 to 3 months. You can contact him at [email protected].
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.
By Matthew Polk
On February 18, Prosper Waco held its Inaugural Event at the Waco Convention Center. The event was free and open to the public. About 450 community members attended. Troy Bush, one of our partners at Episcopal Health Foundation (EHF) in Houston, commented earlier this week on how impressive it was to see so many people in one place to dialogue about community issues. Even in Houston, he said, it would be difficult to bring together 450 people for a community conversation.
But is 450 enough? How many people does it take to truly represent a community as diverse as Waco?
Some who attended the Inaugural Event wondered if a person living in poverty would have felt welcome at the very event that was supposed to be about reducing poverty. That is a troubling question. If we want to improve the overall prosperity of our community, we are going to have to work together to overcome some serious challenges associated with Education, Health and Financial Security. To do this effectively, all of us must be a part of the conversation. We need every perspective. We need the perspective of those of us who wrestle every day with the realities and practicalities of life WITHOUT solid education, sound health and secure finances.
The promise of Prosper Waco is in the bridges that we can build between big-picture strategies for community improvement and the needs of people in neighborhoods throughout the city. We have a long history of productive big-picture thinking by our public officials and by people who have had the financial resources to make big investments. Our system of Family Health Centers, our abundant water supply and the attractiveness of community jewels such as Cameron Park, the Zoo, and the Convention Center are evidence of wise, strategic, big-picture thinking that has paid off.
We also have a long history of neighborhood development. We have experienced the benefit of doing the patient work of building relationships, one neighbor at a time, even when lack of resources makes those relationships both more crucial and more difficult to maintain. The success of the 15th Street “Street of Dreams” initiative is a great example of this kind of neighborhood-level revitalization work.
Often, however, it has been difficult to find effective ways to connect visionary plans and grassroots work. Certainly there are examples of where it has happened—for example, the City of Waco housing department worked effectively with local non-profits to better serve Waco’s homeless population and dramatically decrease the number of people in Waco who suffer chronic homelessness. But it remains a challenge to build bridges between a community’s resources and the people who need to benefit from them.
The momentum behind the Prosper Waco initiative and the generous engagement of a wide range of community partners makes this the right time to successfully build those bridges, to engage the whole community, to work together.
That’s why our partnership with Troy and EHF is important. EHF has a track record of engaging communities to identify local health challenges and to develop strategies to overcome those challenges. They are experts in making sure people from all parts of a community are involved in developing the solutions that will make their community stronger. One of the techniques they have used successfully to get this kind of community involvement is to establish a Community Engagement Council. Prosper Waco has partnered with EHF and Alexis Christensen, a local community organizer, to develop a Community Engagement Council for Waco to help ensure that people throughout Waco participate in the Prosper Waco initiative.
The Prosper Waco Community Engagement Council is a group of individuals who live in some of the neighborhoods in East, North and South Waco where the challenges of education, health and financial security are felt most acutely. These are individuals who are active in the community and willing to take the time to dialogue together to think about the best ways to take the Prosper Waco initiative to people in all parts of the city.
The council members will be actively spreading the news about Prosper Waco in their neighborhoods. They will be inviting friends and neighbors to events to learn more about Prosper Waco activities and to have conversations about what Prosper Waco can mean for them. They may be reaching out to you or people you know with an invitation to have dinner and dialogue about Prosper Waco. Be on the lookout for signs of Prosper Waco in your neighborhood.
Does this type of community conversation interest you? A steering committee discussion of community data may not be your cup of tea, but a conversation over dinner with friends and neighbors may be a way that you can help build this community initiative. If you are interested in building community engagement as part of the Prosper Waco initiative—especially if you live in one of the areas of the city mentioned above—give us a call at 741-0081, or email me at [email protected] and let me know that you’re interested in being part of the work of Prosper Waco.
Editor’s note: FYI, Prosper Waco has a show on the Waco City Cable Channel. Click here to see Matthew’s interview with Pastor C.J. Oliver, a member of the Community Engagement Council. It is in the second half of the show after the interview with Dr. Jim Morrison.
Matthew Polk is Executive Director of Prosper Waco. Prior to that, he served as Superintendent of Rapoport Academy Public School. He and his wife attended Baylor, and after spending a few years in the northeast, they returned to Waco to raise their family. They have four children, ages 8 to 3 months. You can contact him at [email protected].
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.
By Matthew Polk
This is an exciting time to live in Waco. Downtown revitalization, Baylor football in McLane Stadium, Fixer Upper, food trucks…the list of great things about Waco is long and growing. There is a refreshing energy that comes from living in a place that is growing and seeing success. Everyone wants to be part of a winning team.
Most of us would agree that when a community grows and prospers, the benefits spill over to all of the community members in one way or another. A revitalized downtown means a more beautiful city, more places to shop and eat, more jobs. A winning sports program means more exciting entertainment options and visits from College GameDay. Local TV celebrities give us something to talk about with strangers on the airplane when we tell them we’re from Waco, TX. In other words, when Waco wins, we all win. This idea seems to make sense to most people.
But how often do we flip that idea on its head and look at it from another perspective? How often do we think about the fact that, when one Wacoan benefits, it’s good for the rest of us? It’s easy to see that when the community as a whole is flourishing there are benefits for us individually—sometimes it’s harder to see how one person’s success can lead to benefits for the rest of the community (unless that person happens to be named Art, Bryce, Chip, or Joanna).
Prosper Waco is about the idea that for the community of Waco to flourish, Waco’s citizens and families have to flourish. It’s about the idea that the more successful we are individually, the stronger we will be as a community. We have a special opportunity to seize the momentum Waco has and harness it in a way that benefits all members of our community. Prosper Waco is about making sure that all Wacoans have a chance to capitalize on our recent success and, by doing so, to contribute to the growing momentum.
So what is Prosper Waco? Simply put, it’s a community-wide initiative to make Waco a better place for all of us to live. More specifically, our mission statement is “to build an environment in which all people can measurably improve their education, health, and financial security.” Education…health…financial security. They are intertwined in all our lives. Our educational achievement affects our job prospects, which affects our health, which affects our financial security…and so on.
But how do you go about helping people improve their education, health, and financial security throughout an entire community? These are big, complex areas of life with lots of moving parts and many issues to consider. In order to make positive changes in these areas, a community has to agree on some goals that we can work toward together. This approach is called collective impact—a community working together to achieve goals that will benefit everyone.
If more children are academically and socially prepared to begin Kindergarten, our schools will be stronger. If more students (especially students from economically-disadvantaged backgrounds) complete a college certificate or degree, we will have a more dynamic workforce, which means our economy will grow, more jobs will be available, and more businesses will thrive. If more people in Waco have access to primary healthcare, our local hospitals will not need to provide millions of dollars a week (a week!) in uncompensated care and will be able to provide even better care for everyone. If more young people find a job, they will have a better chance of establishing a career that will provide their family with financial security and boost the local economy.
To achieve any of these things will take a coordinated effort from all of us.
So who is us? Who is Prosper Waco? You are…so are your family, your friends, your co-workers, classmates, and fellow church members. Prosper Waco is all of us pulling in the same direction to achieve some very big, very ambitious goals that will benefit everyone because more of us will be succeeding on an individual level. Prosper Waco is non-profits, businesses, churches, schools, and government agencies aligning their services and communicating about how they can work together to achieve common goals and better serve the community.
How can you be Prosper Waco? How can you get involved? Here are some ways:
- Talk to your neighbors and friends about Prosper Waco and what you’d like to see change for the better in our community. We are all the “grassroots” that will make this community-wide initiative work, and it will take people connecting with other people to make sure that Wacoans are able to make the most of the opportunities that develop out of this initiative.
- If you are a community member who has always wanted to be part of making Waco better but didn’t know where to start, call us and we can help you find volunteer opportunities with great local organizations.
- If you are a “big picture” person with a strategic mind, we’d love to have you join our steering committees to help develop community-wide strategies for achieving our goals.
- If you lead a local organization (non-profit, business, church, etc.) and want to coordinate your efforts with others to achieve common goals, give us a call or click on the Prosper Waco Affiliate logo at www.prosperwaco.org to indicate your organization’s interest in joining this movement.
If you’d like to learn more about Prosper Waco, give us a call at 741-0081, or visit us on the web, Facebook, or Twitter. #IamProsperWaco, and so are you. Together, we can build a Waco that works for all of us.
Matthew Polk is Executive Director of Prosper Waco. Prior to that, he served as Superintendent of Rapoport Academy Public School. He and his wife attended Baylor, and after spending a few years in the northeast, they returned to Waco to raise their family. They have four children, ages 8 to 3 months. You can contact him at [email protected].
The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.