Coalition Infrastructure
Many coalitions are focused on a single, well-defined issue, such as passing or implementing a specific law. On the other hand, CCSJ is focused on a broad issue that touches many policies and programs. This section describes the coalition infrastructure we used to coordinate and take collective action.
People
Steering committee
The CCSJ Steering Committee is composed of at least one leader in each partner organization and the Coalition Director.
Coalition director
The Coalition Director facilitates communication and strategic planning for CCSJ. The Coalition Director also serves as the main point of contact for external stakeholders, manages relationships with elected officials and policymakers at the coalition-level, and drives the creation of joint statements and responses to urgent items.
Evaluation manager
The Evaluation Manager works with leaders and program staff across CCSJ partner organizations to understand CCSJ’s vision of success and develop evaluations to measure and document outcomes.
Dedicated program Staff
In addition to incorporating new CCSJ work into existing staff work plans, each organization has hired dedicated positions for CCSJ work.
Nuts and Bolts
Foundational strategy meetings
A necessary step in forming the coalition was to discuss everyone’s goals for the coalition and theories of change. From there we could identify common goals and strategies to pursue collectively. Another important step was to address any potential conflicts or misgivings that the organizations may have, so that they could be addressed before making major investments into the coalition.
Steering committee meetings
Leaders from each organization meet biweekly to coordinate actions, share information, and make collective decisions. Engagement from executive directors, program directors, and other leadership empowers the Steering Committee to make high-level decisions within a highly politicized environment.
Rapid response protocol
In the early phases of CCSJ, we had a more reactive approach because we were focused on addressing every incident as quickly as possible. We were constantly concerned about missing the window. However, this approach was not sustainable and took energy away from building community safety infrastructure and longer-term change. To help us prioritize our efforts, we created a rapid response protocol that outlined criteria for activating different responses to incidents. The protocol sharpened our understanding of our role and the kinds of interventions we were best suited to make.
Strengthened internal communication channels
Over the years, CCSJ has built additional communication channels to facilitate collaboration. We created a listserv for Steering Committee members and adjacent staff to collaborate on coalition-level decisions. We also created a listserv for program staff to share resources and updates.
Theory of change
After several years of crisis response and building new programming, we came back together to document our theory of change. We conducted one-on-one interviews with CCSJ member staff, pored through our documents, and conducted a workshop with staff at the executive and frontline levels. Working through this process was an opportunity for us to strengthen the unifying threads of our work and incorporate the lessons learned from our early years. The workshop was also an opportunity for CCSJ at different organizations and levels to hear from one another and build greater understanding.
Additional Infrastructure to Build
Due to capacity constraints, we could not build all of the infrastructure that we thought would be helpful. We recommend considering the following:
Administrative support
The administrative work required for a funded coalition with multiple grant requirements is complex. Some grant requirements were so onerous that they started to negatively impact programs and relationships. Additional administrative support, especially for grant management, could free up capacity among program staff to focus on implementation.
Social events
Social events to bring staff at all levels together can build familiarity and seed collaborations across the coalition. Staff can learn about the details of each other’s work and better understand each other’s motivations in a way that might not come out of focused work meetings. Social events also build social cohesion, especially for staff that may have come on board more recently.
Continued strategy retreats
As the environment around community safety changes, it is useful to have regular meetings dedicated to revisiting strategies and remapping the stakeholder landscape.