Perspectives — Unleashing Potential Through Nonprofit Collaboration
By Jim Wambach | April 25, 2024
A call for partnerships to uplift children in Oakland schools
“Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.” — Stephen Covey
You support our pioneering spirit so that we can co-architect a brighter future for Oakland’s children.
In Oakland’s schools, nonprofit collaboration isn’t just a good thing to consider—it’s essential in order for organizations focused at the elementary school level to improve overall literacy and math skills more quickly. We must better understand and align our services and curriculum with each other—and with the principals and teachers in the schools we serve.
Imagine the power of leveraging each other’s experience, knowledge, and best practices—all centered on improving and extending our programs for the students we serve—and doing so more cost-effectively. In these challenging times, the kids and educators we serve require and deserve no less of us.
Will you complete HER Circle of Care?
Through one-on-one reading and math tutoring, and family support, you will nurture an eager child in a circle of care so they may succeed in school.
Will you complete HER Circle of Care?
Through one-on-one reading and math tutoring, and family support, you will nurture an eager child in a circle of care so they may succeed in school.
Far too often, nonprofits work in silos, focused intently on OUR work for the kids. Sure, we meet with each other from time to time, but we often become so busy doing our own thing we don’t have the time to truly synergize our respective programs. There are certainly benefits to our unique approaches to serving the kids—up to a point. But in many cases, we are all like separate research and development labs.
Implementing a better community nonprofit model should be approached with urgency. It will ensure that children and schools can benefit from shared best practices and program synergy, leading to improved outcomes.
Let’s elevate our collaboration, ensuring every child has the opportunity to thrive!
Collaboration with fellow nonprofits enables us to do more together for the kids.
At Children Rising, we are prioritizing nonprofit collaboration by establishing partnerships with fellow organizations that can extend and improve our programming. Our vision is to align ourselves with a network of organizations with complementary programs and expertise. In this way, there’s great promise to do more for more children and provide improved community support for our local educators.
Such collaboration hinges on shared values, vision, trust, and the exchange of best practices and resources. There are many organizations in Oakland providing high-quality programming for the kids and the schools. The time is now for us to be more intentional about active collaboration.
“By working together even more closely, we become co-architects of a brighter future for Oakland’s children.”
As one of the first members of the Oakland Literacy Coalition, we’ve witnessed the magic of shared vision and values. Each member organization brings unique expertise, weaving a tapestry of innovation and best practices. We share what works in our specific area of focus so that collectively, we have the opportunity to become more than the sum of our individual efforts.
By working together even more closely, we become co-architects of a brighter future for Oakland’s children.
Let’s do more together for our youth and our community. The kids require it—and deserve it!
