Now in 2021, all six imperative leads, community-based organizations, are online and enlisting others in creating and normalizing our narrative of action. This action, supported by the HSH office, is instigated by these imperative leads that facilitate the co-creation of activities and trackable performance metrics with community toward achieving population level goals:
- Decrease in infant mortality rate
- Increase in kids with “excellent or very good” health
- Increase in kids living in households with the income to meet basic needs (above the ALICE Threshold)
- Increase in families living in complete and supportive neighborhoods
- Increase in kids who are kindergarten ready
- Increase in students who are proficient in ELA and Math at third grade
Hope Starts Here’s distributed leadership includes influential community-based organizations with a record of demonstrated impact:
- Imperative 1 – Henry Ford Health Systems, City of Detroit Health Department
- Imperative 2 – Detroit Champions of Hope
- Imperative 3 – BFDI, ECIC
- Imperative 4 – IFF
- Imperative 5 – UWSEM
- Imperative 6 – ECFC liaison, manager housed at CMF
Now that all imperative leads are online and largely have working Implementation Success Plans, they are using these plans to strategically outline next steps, contribute data and stories – all contained within Hope Start Here’s impact portal managed by the Implementation Success Manager Jeremiah White and used in concert with our Implementation Policy and Research Manager Shondra Marshall and Director Denise Smith to inform and track performance metrics toward achieving the above population level goals. We also are continuously enhancing feedback loops and engaging community in banking stories of impact while informing and advocating for specific policy shifts that ensure equitable access to high-quality and affordable opportunities for young children and their families.
“Stories not only teach us how to act – they inspire us to act. Stories communicate our values through the language of the heart, our emotions. And it is what we feel – our hopes, our cares, our obligations – not simply what we know that can inspire us with the courage to act.” – Telling Your Public Story, Self, Us, Now, Marshall Ganz, 2007