Community District 3 (South Bronx Rising Together)

In 2014, Children’s Aid and Phipps Neighborhoods joined forces to launch South Bronx Rising Together (SBRT), a community-wide effort with a network of neighborhood residents and program providers to build pathways of success for children and youth “from cradle through college and career.” We are among a growing number of communities across the country working to achieve collective impact – bringing together various stakeholders to get results on important outcomes.

SBRT envisions a South Bronx that is a vibrant community of infinite opportunity where people aspire to live, work, and raise families. Aligned with that vision, we have identified seven aspirational goals for our community’s young people:

  • All are healthy

  • All are ready for kindergarten

  • All succeed in school

  • All contribute positively to the community

  • All graduate high school ready for college and career

  • All attain a post-secondary degree or credential

  • All begin a career

Community District 6

Bronx Impact Alliance, Community District 6, led by Phipps Neighborhoods, brings together cross-sector stakeholders within Bronx Community District 6 to develop community-driven strategies to transcend poverty.  

They believe that community members are best positioned to identify barriers to collective wellbeing, and that residents should be included in the proposal and realization of relevant solutions. Their collective impact work convenes community members to envision and achieve shared outcomes. 

The initiative will:

  • Co-Create Goals: listening to and working with community members to identify common goals which create opportunity and promote well-being for the whole community

  • Align Efforts: convening stakeholders to work towards common outcomes and achieve long-lasting progress in the Bronx

  • Solve Problems: promoting solutions to systemic issues by identifying factors that undermine individual, family, and community well-being, allowing poverty to persist and perpetuate

  • Access Resources: breaking down systemic barriers to align and connect systems, facilitating greater and more efficient access to resources

Community District 9

Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice’s (YMPJ) philosophy is the idea that allies coming together can be greater than the sum of their parts, and achieve exponential impact to address shared challenges and goals. As a backbone organization, YMPJ draws on a deep well of experience leading, supporting, and managing collaborations between diverse groups and stakeholders. YMPJ is a trusted grassroots organization that has integrated community input into every facet of its programming and continuous improvement and they serve as a key resource in the community, advocating on its behalf and amplifying its voices to a myriad of local, city, and state system and community providers.

As a District 9 backbone organization, YMPJ is enlisting the collaboration of key partners already at the table to support their leadership council. For residents, YMPJ are facilitating monthly stakeholder meetings with translation services and providing capacity building training and technical assistance support to all network members of the collective impact collaboration with a plan to address topics identified as essential by stakeholders. YMPJ is also inviting outside experts to provide important training and assistance to the community, and is connecting with other backbone organizations throughout the country to learn about best management practices. 

Developing common goals within a large, diverse group of partners inevitably presents challenges, but YMPJ is implementing formal methods and techniques to:

  • determine collaborative goals

  • establish systems of measurement to which all partners can contribute

  • leverage the expertise, capacity, and constituencies of diverse partners

  • cultivate information-sharing and trust to ensure collective learning and sustain motivation.