CS3
announced the opportunity to participate in the Collaboration Leadership Roundtable through Partner Plan Act’s communication outlets. Interested leaders completed a brief application involving basic identifying, contact, and demographic information, and short answer responses to the following questions:
1. What interests you about this project?
2. What do you think is the secret to successful collaboration leadership?
Eighteen early childhood collaboration leaders responded to the announcement. Collaboration Leadership Roundtable members were selected based on their responses to the open-ended questions, geographic location, type of early childhood collaboration, race and ethnicity, and length of time in their position. We strove to include leaders across the range of variables.
The members of the Collaboration Leadership Roundtable were:
• Kristen Ford – Director, Palatine Early Learning Alliance (PELA), Palatine and Wheeling Township
• Niah Hamilton – Intake Coordinator, iGrow of Vermillion County
• Rhonda Hillyer – Coordinator, The Village Early Childhood Collaboration, Knox, Mercer, Warren, and Henderson Counties
• Rarzail Jones – Community Connections Program Manager, Illinois Action for Children
• Esther Lodge – Project Manager, Ready to Learn Early Childhood Collaboration, Alignment Rockford
• Amber Peters – Executive Director, Elgin Partnership for Early Learning
• Kim Peterson – All Our Kids (AOK) Network Coordinator, Kane County AOK Network
• Linda Rios – All Our Kids (AOK) Network Coordinator, Cicero AOK Network
• Kate Warach – Director, Jewish Early Childhood Collaborative, Greater Chicago Area
• Jeanine Woltman – Coordinator, Glenbard Early Childhood Collaborative
The Collaboration Roundtable met six times between January and June 2023. Meetings lasted 3 hours with a full-day meeting in June. Ruby Flores, Training and Coaching Manager, Community Systems Statewide Supports (CS3) and Carolyn Newberry Schwartz, Consultant to CS3, facilitated the meetings. Roundtable members entered into an agreement with Illinois Action for Children that described each party’s commitments. Members were expected to prioritize meeting participation and asked to complete work in advance of any meetings that they were unable to attend. To promote attendance, the group worked hard to identify a regular meeting day convenient to everyone.
4 Collaboration Leadership Roundtable: Report and Recommendations
VISION STATEMENT
The members of the Collaboration Leadership Roundtable expressed a shared aspiration that their insights about their work and the activities of the Roundtable make a meaningful contribution to the ongoing efforts to build early childhood community systems across Illinois. Paramount among their concerns was the advancement of the role of early childhood community collaboration leadership. They shared the understanding that early childhood community systems could not be sustained until
collaboration leadership in this context was better understood and supported across the spectrum of stakeholders who promoted, initiated, and participated in them.
To arrive at a vision statement, the members of the CLR responded to and discussed each other’s responses to the following questions:
1.
What is your deepest hope for our work together?
2.
What is the picture you have for a desired future state for collaboration leaders in Illinois?
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Vision Statement
STATEMENT
Early childhood collaboration leadership is recognized and valued as a vital professional role in Illinois. Core responsibilities and requisite skills are widely understood. Compensation, resources, and support affirm the complexity of developing and sustaining an effective early childhood community collaboration, and the critical importance of the contributions that leaders make to foster success.
6 Collaboration Leadership Roundtable: Report and Recommendations
RESPONSIBILITIES OF COLLABORATION LEADERS
The first objective of the CLR was to identify core responsibilities that comprise the work of leading an early childhood community collaboration. A list of responsibilities was generated by reviewing the job descriptions of CLR members and others that were obtained by the facilitators through a web-based search. This review showed that the position held by collaboration leaders within organizations varied widely, contributing to disparities in the responsibilities assigned to current leaders and the way they understand their role. For example:
• Some leaders hold full-time, dedicated positions while other leaders are expected to lead collaborations, but their job descriptions make no mention of these responsibilities.
As a result, the facilitators did not ask the group to consider the development of a summary statement for the role of collaboration leaders. They determined that this statement should be based on the context of the position and the range of responsibilities that the position encompassed.
CLR members thoroughly debated a long list of responsibilities to determine which ones were needed to successfully develop and sustain an early childhood community collaboration. Throughout the discussions, the members wrestled with the inclusion of administrative and professional responsibilities such as staff supervision, grant writing, budget development and monitoring, and data sharing, collection, and reporting activities. After much debate, the group decided that these responsibilities needed to be fulfilled within a collaboration due to their importance for success and should be included in the list to ensure that communities and backbone
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Responsibilities of Collaboration Leaders
agencies carefully consider how they will be addressed, either by the collaboration lead, backbone agency staff, or collaboration partners. They cautioned, however, that a wide range of responsibilities placed solely in the collaboration leader position could result in:
• Insufficient time for quality work to build and sustain relationships needed for successful collaboration and effective systems change strategies.
• The position becoming a catchall for an agency and community to address programmatic and systemic challenges, including time-consuming clerical and administrative tasks.
• Lack of meaningful investment by the backbone agency and the community in the range of functions needed to develop and sustain a thriving collaboration.
• The risk that the collaboration leader is held solely responsible for the collaboration’s success.
• A lower-level position/job title that offers significantly less remuneration than a position that reflects the high levels of responsibility and competency required to perform successfully, resulting in unrealistic demands and burnout.
CLR members offer the following list of responsibilities of collaboration leaders with the above considerations and cautions. Members sincerely hope communities will consider this list so that these vital positions are informed by current understanding and practice and become better aligned across Illinois.
BUILDING THE COLLABORATION AND DRIVING SYSTEMS CHANGE
1. Coordinate the development of a shared agenda where all partners share a vision for change that includes a shared understanding of the challenges and a joint approach to addressing them. Lead the process for developing, implementing, and monitoring a strategic plan and/or action steps focused on systems building and systems change.
2.
Relationship development: Directly connect with community stakeholders across a diverse range of programs, services, and activities such as schools, parks, libraries, social service agencies, preschools, child care centers, Child Family Connections, business leaders, municipal or county governments, parents and primary care providers, and home visiting programs to engage and retain their participation in the collaboration.
3. Outreach: Design and implement activities with collaboration partners to engage parents/ primary care providers who are disconnected from early childhood programs and services in strategy development and collaboration work.
4. Lead and foster support for the collaboration through public speaking engagements at business and civic organizations and local government meetings, and support grant and fundraising opportunities.
5. Support collaboration partners with building capacity to participate in strategies through community planning, data literacy, and communications.
8 Collaboration Leadership Roundtable: Report and Recommendations
6.
Cultivate relationships and work with host organization leaders, partner leaders, funders, and board of directors, as applicable.
MANAGING THE COLLABORATION
7.
Support in the hiring, training, and supervising of collaboration staff.
8.
Convene regular and consistent meetings of the collaboration members.
9.
Develop or co-develop agenda and lead or support leadership of meetings.
10.
Organize and facilitate committee/work group/task force meetings to design and implement action plans to achieve collaboration’s shared agenda.
11.
Lead in organizing and maintaining documentation of collaboration partners’ efforts related to a systems change strategy and standardize processes.
12.
Develop or co-develop and monitor budgets, approve expenditures, and ensure proper documentation of expenditures.
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Responsibilities of Collaboration Leaders
DATA COLLECTION, MANAGEMENT, AND ANALYSIS
13.
Data collection: Gather data from collaboration partners engaged in collaboration strategies/ projects/activities. Gather community-level data about children and families living in the collaboration’s catchment area, including demographic, socio-economic, child well-being, service usage, etc. for community needs assessment.
14.
Develop data collection processes: Work with collaboration members to identify shared measurements; work with relevant partners to execute data sharing agreements.
15.
Data analysis: Drive shared measurement by ensuring that partners reach a consensus on the way to measure success. Coordinate and lead data analysis to monitor child, program, and systems change, and review data for completeness and accuracy.
16.
Leverage data to foster, support, manage, and assess the development and funding of new initiatives. This may include the hiring and management of researchers.
COMMUNICATIONS/ PUBLIC RELATIONS
17.
Work with collaboration partners, parents, and the community to ensure consistent messaging. Maintain frequent communication and employ various communication strategies to keep all members of the collaboration and the community engaged and informed about its work.
18.
Build public awareness about the importance of early childhood and the collaboration. This includes building relationships with all constituencies within the community (civic organizations, philanthropy, business, and local government agencies, and representatives, parents, and community members).
19.
Represent collaboration and its work at the local, regional, and statewide level to ensure the work is understood and included in other community or statewide initiatives. (Examples include: Local Interagency Council, Local Area Network (LAN), IL Early Learning Council and its committees, regional councils, etc.)
20.
Engage in professional development and supports to hone new skills related to early childhood systems change leadership.
10 Collaboration Leadership Roundtable: Report and Recommendations
COMPETENCIES FOR SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATION LEADERSHIP
Background
The second objective of the CLR involved identifying competencies necessary for successful collaboration leadership. Competencies are at the heart of this report because they can be learned. Ensuring that communities and backbone agencies fully understand the requirements for leading an early childhood community collaboration is important for developing pathways that enable leaders to hone skills, receive meaningful support, and promote this emerging leadership role.
CLR members drew from sources listed at the end of this report, their job positions for collaboration leaders, and their experiences for a list of competencies. As they did with
responsibilities for collaboration leaders, the CLR members deeply considered and weighed the importance of each competency. They also struggled with whether to include competencies associated with the administrative and professional responsibilities noted in the previous section. The members determined that these competencies should be included because they are required of leaders when additional staff, either from a backbone or member organization, cannot fulfill these functions.
• Connection: Able to foster connections and constructive working relationships among different groups, organizations, communities, families, early learning program providers, schools, social service providers, and community leaders towards achieving a common goal.
• Equity: Able to embed an equity lens in working with communities and in evaluating the local early childhood system.
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Competencies for Successful Collaboration Leadership
• Reflective Learning: Facilitates continuous, reflective learning to encourage people to question, explore, analyze, and interact in order to arrive at widely supported solutions and innovative approaches.
• Facilitation: Possesses strong facilitation skills that engage and empower stakeholders and sustain momentum and engagement toward developing and implementing a shared agenda.
• Change Management:
• Assesses systemic and community dynamics that promote and impede change.
• Advances goals and activities that challenge the way things have traditionally been done when tradition is not working effectively for children and their families.
• Able to reinforce change by facilitating the institutionalization of change initiatives.
• Systems Thinking: Understands systems thinking, systems change, and systems development and can apply this thinking to the local early childhood system.
• Dynamic Tension: Able to manage conflicting dynamics that characterize collaboration work, such as short-term and long-term goals, competition and cooperation, etc.
• Political Savvy: Identifies the internal and external politics that impact the work of the collaboration, is able to assess them, and uses the insights to help frame strategies and actions.
• Data Fluency: Able to read, understand, create, and communicate data; able to implement data management processes, procedures, and data quality management in support of shared measurement practices that strengthen decision making and strategy development and revision.
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• Perspective Integration: Understands importance of and how to solicit and affirm different viewpoints in order to build inclusive, comprehensive strategies and foster a cohesive collaboration.
• Grant Writing: Able to write grants and understand the grant-seeking cycle, including prospecting, developing calendars, engaging with funders, and writing proposals and reports.
• Communication: Possesses excellent listening, verbal, and written communication skills to promote transparency and ensure solid understanding amongst collaboration partners, stakeholders, funders, etc.
• Financial Management: Able to develop and monitor budgets and fiscal health of the collaboration.
• Strategic Relationships: Able to build relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders who have divergent interests and goals and varying levels of authority, including those with significant power and influence.
• Project Management: Able to manage projects from conception through implementation and revision using various project management strategies.
• Critical Thinking: Engages in and fosters critical thinking amongst others to guide beliefs, make decisions, and develop change strategies.
• Supervision and Staff Development: Possesses supervisory skills and demonstrates ability to support staff in developing their professional skills.
• Leadership Development: Implements practices and supports to develop the leadership skills of collaboration members, including parents.
• Managing Up: Able to gain support of people with power and influence who can direct resources to support strategies.
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13 Competencies for Successful Collaboration Leadership
CHALLENGES IN LEADING EARLY CHILDHOOD COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS
Throughout the discussions about responsibilities and competencies, collaboration leaders shared challenges they experienced in fulfilling their responsibilities. A number of themes emerged and, like the competencies, they informed the types of support the members thought would benefit collaboration leaders.
• Isolation: Collaboration leaders experience loneliness and isolation due to the lack of other professionals in their geographic communities who hold a similar role. Further, the role of
collaboration leaders across the state varies widely, contributing to a lack of a cohesive professional community.
• Lack of Support: Many collaboration leaders report that they lack meaningful support due to a lack of understanding about the work, unique challenges, and skills required to successfully lead a collaboration and build a vibrant early childhood community system.
Collaboration leaders also note a lack of meaningful professional supports such as mentoring and professional peer groups geared to early childhood collaboration leaders. Additionally, very few professional development opportunities in Illinois address the distinct skills and challenges involved in leading an early childhood community collaboration.
14 Collaboration Leadership Roundtable: Report and Recommendations
• Dissonance: Internal tension is built into the job of a collaboration leader. They are held accountable for outcomes and processes that are outside their span of control and encompass a very wide sphere of influence. The responsibilities collaboration leaders are expected to fulfill are many and vary dramatically across the field and within individual jobs. For example, many collaboration leaders need to be able to:
• develop and monitor budgets
• write grants and grant reports
• perform clerical/administrative tasks
• speak with political leaders and funders to garner support for the effort
• utilize collaborative leadership skills to recruit and sustain engagement of diverse stakeholders
• support the development of systems change strategies and ensure successful implementation by collaboration participants who often compete with each other and whose agencies have not allocated time for meaningful engagement
• engage with and offer guidance to leaders who hold more power and resources.
• Resource Poverty: Collaboration leaders report that few people in the early childhood field understand the amount of time required to build and sustain a collaboration and to design and implement a meaningful systems change strategy. As a result, inappropriate demands are made on their time and expectations about progress can be unrealistic.
• Collaborations are often poorly resourced. Many collaboration leaders are asked to fulfill the job responsibilities as an addon to a full-time job or to fulfill numerous responsibilities related to collaboration leadership on a part-time basis. Additionally, inadequate staffing, including administrative
support, and budgets to support systems change strategies that include data collection and its attendant tasks contribute to demands on collaboration leaders’ time and fragmentation of their efforts.
• The compensation for collaboration leaders usually does not reflect the unique skills and responsibilities that are involved in successful leadership, some of this stemming from locating this position in a lower-level role within an agency or school district. 1
• Fragmented Early Childhood System: The lack of a cohesive early childhood system at the State level continues to negatively impact the delivery of services at the community level and drains limited resources. While significant efforts have been made to align state efforts over the past few years, issues like multiple reporting platforms, differing contractual requirements from state agencies to deliver services, and the lack of engagement with early childhood community collaboration leaders to inform state policy and practice continue to exacerbate the challenges of creating a vibrant and responsive early childhood system that works well at the community level.
1 Members of the Roundtable often expressed frustration over the low level of compensation many collaboration leaders receive and the assignment of the position to a lower-level role within the context of their sponsoring organizations. They noted that the latter worked to suppress compensation and also conveyed a lack of understanding about the work. They urge everyone to consider elevating the role of the collaboration leader within their organizations, to assign a title that offers it the weight and influence needed to get the job done, and to compensate leaders adequately for the responsibilities and competencies required for the position.
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Challenges in Leading Early Childhood Community Collaborations
