Improving Lives Through Collective Impact
That is why the Children’s Services Council (CSC) of Broward County powers the Broward Children’s Strategic Plan (BCSP) which harnesses collective action by providing opportunities for Community Builders (e.g., service & system partners, families, youth, municipal staff, etc.) to improve the lives of children and families.
To maximize opportunities for positive youth development and improve child and family system outcomes, community members and service provider staff form committees that focus on their scope of work, reflect on available data, identify action steps, and establish strategies for specific segments of children’s services in Broward County using the Turn the Curve Report. Committee members include residents, service providers, government representatives, and local businesses, all working toward accomplishing common results to align initiatives and events, share data, and leverage support.
The BCSP consists of more than 30 committees that work to turn the curve on a range of issues toward five desired results:
Children Live in Stable & Nurturing Families | Children are Mentally & Physically Healthy | Children are Ready to Succeed in School | Children Live in Safe & Supportive Communities | Young People Successfully Transition to Adulthood
Whether it is through participating in a committee, attending a community event, or sharing insightful feedback and data, there are many ways community builders contribute to improving our neighborhoods. CSC staff provide backbone support for the work of committees including Results Based Accountability training, coaching, logistical support, and data for a committee’s Turn the Curve Report.
The work of the BCSP committees informs funding decisions, policies, and practices. Just as importantly, the BCSP and CSC’s backbone support allows for an infrastructure that is responsive, flexible, and reflective of the community’s evolving and emerging conditions and experiences.
Every five years, CSC convenes a county-wide Youth Summit where community builders, including youth, assess the plan’s progress and provide hopes, visions, and constructive feedback to inform the work going forward. Our mission is to weave the community’s resources, data, and opportunities to achieve the five desired results and community conditions.
Our Goals From Planning to Action
First approved in February 2002, the Broward Children’s Strategic Plan sets the vision, mission, goals, and objectives for establishing a better community in which children live, learn, and thrive. In 2006, nearly 600 participants came together to assess the plan’s progress and provide constructive feedback for a revised version, which would include five new – and targeted – results areas. As Community Builders, it is our mission to connect our community’s resources and data to ensure that these goals are met.
Working toward ensuring that all Broward children live in safe, stable and nurturing families.
Committees are working hard to safeguard the mental and physical health of Broward Children. It is necessary to have in place a continuum of maternal and child health services for at-risk families. Committees are working to ensure that:
- There is a reduction in the Number of Children Drowning (ages 1-4)
- There is a reduction in Childhood Obesity
- All Black babies in Broward County will be born healthy, and remain healthy.
- Babies will be born substance free
- Women will have healthy pregnancies with positive birth outcomes.
- There will be zero perinatal HIV transmissions
- Broward County teens will be healthy.
As the community works toward making sure all children in Broward are ready to succeed in school, committees have been working hard on ways to:
- Improve children’s educational success by making sure all of Broward children are ready to succeed in Kindergarten.
- Improve the availability and quality of inclusive out-of-school time programs for economically disadvantaged children and for children with special needs (inclusion).
- Improve the availability and quality of out-of-school care for children with special physical, developmental, and behavioral needs who require intensive services.
- Enhance academic achievement,
- Support social-emotional learning, developmental and physical activities.
- And encourage providers in the community to provide educational field trips and cultural arts opportunities.
Click here to learn more about what we’re doing to ensure children are ready to succeed in school.
In this area, the community is focused on
- Reducing youth risk factors associated with delinquency, teen pregnancy, and other risky behaviors.
- Actively working towards strengthening the continuum of care for children with special needs.
- Creating solutions for strengthening supports for youth aging out of foster care or living in Kinship care, youth involved with juvenile justice, and youth who are LGBTQ to successfully transition to adulthood.
- And working toward solutions that help reduce the recidivism rate of low-risk juvenile offenders and prevent the escalation of crime.
- Increasing protective/resiliency factors and reduce risk factors associated with delinquency, teen pregnancy, and other risky behaviors.
In this area, Community Builders work to ensure that children are living in safe and supportive communities though the reduction of abuse and neglect.
Explore Our Committees
To maximize opportunities for positive youth development and improve system outcomes, Community Builders have formed focused committees that analyze data, identify action steps, and establish community indicators to measure progress for specific segments of children’s services in Broward County. Committee members include residents, providers, government representatives, and local businesses alike, all working toward accomplishing a common goal by regularly meeting to share data, align events and initiatives, and leverage support from the CSC.
Click here to View Committees
