You may have heard the word “coalition” and wondered what it means.  A coalition is a group of people who come together to address an issue that is bigger than any one person or organization can solve on their own. In Indiana, about thirty communities (cities, counties, and regions) have formed a coalition focused on early childhood education.  Two years ago, there were probably 15-20 Indiana communities with an early childhood coalition.  What is happening in Indiana and other states, causing communities to come together around early childhood education, and why should your community consider forming an early childhood coalition if you haven’t yet?

Coalition Trend

The idea of forming a coalition to address an issue is not new or specific to the early childhood field.  Coalitions are well used in other sectors, such as economic development, workforce development, and education.  What is somewhat new is the idea that organizations need to work with other organizations and stakeholders, often unusual partners, to make progress and realize their outcomes.  We talked about this in a past blog article here.

Early childhood education is complex and multifaceted.  It affects so many other sectors’ goals: health, education, workforce, economics, and criminal justice.  As communities have started to organize around one of these issues, such as a desire to increase their talent pipeline, they realize that early childhood education can be a solution to achieving their goal.

Other states that have expanded public investments in early childhood education have expanded through local community coalitions, such as Michigan’s Great Start Communities.  Local community coalitions know the community’s needs and assets, as well as its culture, to develop a vision and plan for action that makes the most sense.

Indiana places substantial value on local decision-making, and most of the state’s work is implemented at the regional or local level.  There are also natural partners and resources available in most communities—Community Foundation, United Way agency, and/or Economic Development group. – who are already aligned to supporting this work.  These organizations can be great conveners in communities to help start a coalition.

As Indiana has worked to expand state-funded pre-k through On My Way Pre-K, it has done so through countywide expansion efforts rather than grants to individual early childhood education programs.  In 2015, five counties (Allen, Jackson, Lake, Marion, and Vanderburgh) were designated On My Way Pre-K counties to receive state dollars to enroll low-income children in high-quality pre-k.  In the most recent legislative session, an additional 15 counties (Bartholomew, DeKalb, Delaware, Elkhart, Floyd, Grant, Harrison, Howard, Kosciusko, Madison, Marshall, Monroe, St. Joseph, Tippecanoe, and Vigo) were selected to be a part of the On My Way pre-k expansion effort.

A common thread among all selected On My Way Pre-K counties is that they have a coalition focused on early childhood education.  If your county has not yet been chosen to participate in On My Way Pre-K, it might be time for your community to prepare for the next expansion opportunity.  

While we are working with state partners to build local capacity through the ELAC County Profiles, the Indiana Summit (discussed in this blog post), and a new ELAC Coalition Building Toolkit that will be released later this year, we also work locally with communities.  We recommend these steps for any community considering forming a coalition, regardless of the topic—early childhood education, workforce development, or another issue area!

Collaborate

The first task is to identify the right people to address this compelling community issue and form your coalition.  In Wabash County, we formed an early childhood coalition that includes representatives from business, K12, health/mental health, criminal justice, philanthropy, higher education, local government, and early childhood education.

Assess

The second task is to make sure everyone is on the same page with their understanding of the community and issue area.  During this phase, your coalition should gather relevant key indicators from current community needs assessments and public data.  In addition, this is also the opportunity to gather feedback from a variety of key stakeholders relevant to the topic at hand through interviews, surveys, and focus groups.  During this step you will not only gather invaluable feedback but also start to build community will and buy in.  For the Wabash Early Childhood Coalition, we used the ELAC County Profiles and IYI Kids Count County Profile.  We also held focus groups with all types of parents, surveyed businesses and parents, and met individually with key stakeholders to collect their input on the current needs and strengths in the community.

Facilitate Consensus

Too often, community coalitions jump right into planning a project or initiative without thoughtfully completing the first steps above and having an intentional plan in place.  This step is critical to bringing the coalition together around its focus and goals. We suggest keeping the goals between 3 and 5, with a mix of short-term “easy wins” that can be accomplished within the first year at minimal cost, as well as long-term goals broken into specific action steps over time.  It is critical to have short-term, easy wins so that the coalition builds credibility in the community as results-focused and creates momentum.  It is also essential to break down the steps needed to accomplish those big goals that will take more time and effort, so that they don’t get lost in being “too hard” or “not having enough money”.

Create

Once your coalition has a consensus on what it wants to do and an intentional plan in place, it is time to put it into action.  Your coalition will need to determine who will implement this plan and how, including identifying a “backbone support” organization.  This might be one of the coalition members taking on the work and/or applying for funding to hire a staff person to implement.  During this phase, your coalition will want to build in key outcomes it is focused on tracking to be accountable for making progress on the identified issue.

When diverse stakeholders come together in agreement to address a common issue, transformational change can occur.  This is what gets us excited at Transform Consulting Group.  If your community would like assistance with a coalition, give us a call or send us a note.  We would love to learn more about what you want to accomplish and how we might help!