November 2018 – PAT Meeting #5

November 2, 2018, 1-3pm

Participants

UB backbone staff present: David Harrington, Nysheva-Starr, Kassa Belay, Jason Ludwig

Attendees: 35, including 7 FAB members and representatives from 16 organizations and 25 programs.

Presentation/Agenda

Notes

Objectives:

• Address conflicting feedback from the last meeting (minutes here) and build consensus around PAT goals, including disrupting systemic racism and inequities
• Adjust Discover Together Brownsville projects to reflect PAT goals

Introductions/Gathering:

• Icebreaker: Please Introduce yourself, your organization and any good news that you have

News and Updates                                                          

• DH and KB are currently in the process of renewing the UB grant and acquiring funding

Review of Feedback from Previous PAT Meeting

• Review of PAT goals developed last meeting
  • PAT members will disrupt inequities and systemic racism, starting with our own work
  • PAT members will collaborate with organizations/programs aligned with UB’s mission in order to share resources (e.g. Professional Development training) and co-create projects that benefit the Brownsville community and its families in a sustainable way
  • The PAT’s agreed upon “Values for Collaboration” should be permanently present in our collective work

• Review of results from previous meeting’s evaluation surveys
  • Feedback revealed that different PAT members were receiving PAT goals and work in contradictory ways
    • Many respondents found generating PAT goals very useful, while a minority question first goal: disrupting inequities

Discussion of First Goal: Disrupting inequities

• UB has interpreted the PAT wide goal to disrupt inequities in UB’s work and that of PAT members as applying an equity lens to the PAT’s work
• What is an equity lens?
  • “An equity lens asks what disparities exist among different groups; takes into account historical and current institutional and structural sources of inequality; and takes explicit steps to build the social, economic, and political power of the people most affected by inequities in order to narrow gaps while improving overall outcomes.”- *“Bringing an Equity Lens to Collective Impact,” by Junious Williams and Sarah Marxer, Urban Strategies Council
  • Discussion of “Equality, Equity, Justice” graphic, visible in meeting deck
    • PAT responses: equity means creating a level playing field, while justice means removing all barriers completely
  • “Accessible” Definition of applying an equity lens: Paying attention to how people from different segments of the same community experience the same intervention
• Group Discussion: What are concrete examples from your work of applying an equity lens?
  • Spending more time with library patrons who lack computer literacy skills
  • Providing books in various languages for the communities TSTF works with
  • As a teacher, spending more time with struggling students.
  • Equity approaches in evaluation: Local stakeholders define the standards for the success of UB’s work
• Group Discussion: What elements of our DTB projects already incorporate an equity lens?
  • Books for Brownsville: attentiveness to various ways local caregivers support pre-literacy for children aged 0-3
  • Learning Landscapes: bringing resources to places likely to be frequented by a broad swath of Brownsville families, not just those already connected to early childhood development resources
    • Creating a map of where resources are located in Brownsville
  • Family Co-op: Thinking through how the Midwest co-op experience can be translated to Brownsville context
  • UB in General: Participatory planning with the PAT and FAB
• Review of FAB “Lift-off” Aspirations: Includes differentiated approaches to SEL & LD, as well as culturally relevant literature
• Further Questions:
  • How do we hold funding organizations accountable, who have contributed to creating inequitable environments?
    • Invite community input/ participatory approaches
    • Rejecting funders who don’t share equitable lens/ or work to reach a shared understanding of why certain approaches are  inappropriate in the Brownsville context (i.e. biometric evaluations of success)

Breakout Groups

• The PAT split into three breakout groups based on their interests in the sections of the DTB proposal:
  • Learning Landscapes: in HUB space
  • Family Co-Op: 4th Floor Conference Room
  • Books for Brownsville: 4th Floor desks, large room to the left of the elevator

• Group assignment:

• • How do/how could our DTB projects incorporate strategies of disrupting racism and other inequities?
  • Identify one concrete step the DTB subcommittees can undertake that will improve the way these projects disrupt racism and inequities?

Learning Landscape/Language Kits Breakout Group

Discussion Notes:

• Began by reviewing interim meeting: decision to locate pilot project in grocery stores
  • Decision made with concern towards equity: not everyone in the community is enrolled in healthcare program, yet everyone has to eat, therefore pilot project in grocery store will reach more people
  • Healthcare providers still engaged as Trusted Messengers
• Can we still have diverse locations? In order to compare what kinds of sites are most successful?
  • MTA Stops: typically more expensive
• Including an equity lens into LL project:
  • Taking into consideration which grocery stores accept benefits, and are most accessible
  • Having multiple languages
  • First Step(s): Finding traffic data of Bville Grocery store, approaching store owners and patrons to introduce LL project, and gauging interest in the project
• Issues still to be resolved:
  • who should take charge in approaching grocery stores? PAT? FAB? UB?
  • Need to know our budget.
  • Need the map of stores in BVille

Books for Brownsville

Discussion Notes:

• We are hiring a consultant to lead this work and have funds to do this soon.
• We are open to suggestions for the consultant position as well as for participants in the roundtable and would like PAT members to help
• We are working with a professor of CUNY Lehman College’s Early Childhood Education Department to develop a job description and to find candidates for the role. You can view the job description here — please send comments/edits/questions/concerns our way.
• There is a call with the professor next Thursday. David invited the group. You are welcome to join if you like, but please let me know if I can expect you.
• Ways the project disrupts inequity and undo systemic racism:
  • Starts with parents’ strengths, concerns, and desires for support rather than being imposed from the outside
  • Strength-based rather than deficit-based
  • Includes a parents/provider review and workshop of the first draft of the curriculum, thereby holding us accountable to them
    • Ensures parents’ concerns are not just an afterthought
• Considerations to better disrupt inequity and undo systemic racism:
  • Consider carefully how parents’ discussion will be communicated to the experts and the local practitioners. The more direct this can be, the more fidelity to parents’ concerns it will have.
  • Perhaps the FAB could help decide which providers get trained in which cohorts based on their needs/desires
• Other feedback:
  • Participants will provide guidance about budget
  • There was support for the community of practice being coordinated around the lead consultant so that the learning does not stop with the first training session
    • Consider how the trainings of the cohorts are grouped (by provider type, for example)

Family Co-Op Breakout Group       

1. In an effort to operationalize the equity approach we discussed as a core piece of the way we want UB to work, stakeholders agreed that PAT and FAB members should begin to critique the curriculum to ensure it is adapted to fit the Brownsville context (since this curriculum was developed in Grundy County, Tn). To that end, here are a few specific steps
   • Curriculum (immediate next step- please respond by 11/9/18)
     • Select a 1 Day portion of the curriculum (out of the 8 days provided) to critique
     • Indicate what 1 Day portion you’d like to work on and a realistic “due date” by which you can submit edits
       • Please share the portion and the due date you’ve set for yourself with Kassa individually (no need to “reply all”). Aim for a due date by December ‘18 meeting if possible, but no pressure if that’s not realistic
     • Indicate with whom you’d prefer to critique:
       • Alone
       • With a “buddy” from the other stakeholder group
         • If you’re in the PAT would you like to work with someone from the FAB or vice versa (allowing for collaboration across stakeholder groups)
       • With a buddy from your stakeholder group
       • With a larger group of folks from either stakeholder group
     • See Grundy County Family Co-Op Video Clip in case it’s helpful to watch how the Family Co-Op operates elsewhere
   • Budget (intermediate next step- please respond by 12/7/18)
     • See Family Co-Op budget and send in any critiques, edits or questions you have in reaction to the budget
   • Family Co-Op Outreach Plan (intermediate next step- please respond by 12/7/18)
     • Develop a “Promotion Plan” for the Family Co-Op that lays out a strategy for how we’ll get the word out about the Family Co-Op to encourage local residents to enroll. Plan should include “acceptance criteria” to assist in deciding who we accept once we begin accepting applications

Survey results