| Programs |
Distressed Area Turnaround |
| This broader approach helps government and foundations
who wish to “move a needle” in distressed
areas where conventional funding does not seem to create
strong impact. It draws upon human sparkplugs as well
as all relevant organizations to define and achieve
community gains in economic, educational, health, environmental,
and other areas. |
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| We use the tools and language of turnaround to intervene
in a wide range of practices that are hallowed by tradition
and funding programs much more than by results. School
Turnaround illustrates these tools in highly developed
form and we have used this base for broader application,
beginning with school system community partnerships
in such places as Cooperstown, New York. The key points: |
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| 1. |
Get professionally-driven and volunteer systems
together. Too often volunteers work at the periphery of change,
when they need to be at its core in areas where money simply
cannot be the driver—either because there is not enough
or because money is simply not the answer, no matter how abundant. |
| 2. |
Focus more on reinventing citizenry and reinventing
government. On the one hand, community volunteers are far
more plentiful and energized than are most government programs. |
| 3. |
Reach critical mass. Too many programs come
in as scatter shots in a depressed area, never achieving enough
mass to reach a “tipping point” toward new widely
shared behavior. This is even more critical in sustaining
gains than in reaching them. |
| 4. |
Focus on personal behaviors. In health, personal
choices on smoking, diet, exercise and getting and taking
medical advice are as consequential to health as are hospitals,
physicians, and equipment. In economic development, people
make or break local stores by their choice in shopping there
or not. In environment, people choose to litter or clean up,
pollute or not pollute local waters with fertilizer run off. |
| 5. |
Build synergy among areas for change. Rather
than to worry about whether jobs, health, education or environment
is most important, we assume their interdependence, showing
how gains in each area are critical to success in the others. |
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| A new focus for county turnaround features Northampton County,
NC. We begin this year with an intensive School Turnaround project
with a number of school districts in the county. We will then broaden
to include health (first as school based clinics) and jobs. Stay
tuned! |
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