connect
Identify key cross-sector partnerships
convene
Lead conversations about the factors impacting our community health
streamline
Share resources, data, and insights to craft holistic solutions
fostering community collaboration
The social service system and the communities we serve are complex. Working together across sectors, with all who are invested in creating a better community, we can expand services and amplify impact. Cross-sector partnerships and shared resources create efficiencies and enhance the quality of life for our neighbors.
building a trustworthy system
Currently, resources exist to address the needs of our community though they are difficult to access and not widely known. Enhancing our cross-sector communication and creating a system committed to evaluating practices, learning community needs, listening to pain points, and analyzing data, can allow us to respond more efficiently to challenges. When needs are met consistently, trust in the system develops and deepens.
At the end of the day, we want to progress and achieve a sense of stability. Then let that support pass to someone else that also needs it.
— Mary, community member
Mary and her husband Arnaldo moved to Florida from Venezuela. She was a professor, and he had a chemical engineering degree, but the language barrier forced career changes. Arnaldo took up manual labor, which quickly led to a strain on his physical health and caused him to take a leave of absence for a few months.
Without jobs, resources ran scarce for Mary, Arnaldo, and their two children. We provided Mary and her family with food from our pantries, connected her to government programs like SNAP, and provided resources on other needs like employment and language assistance. These services provided reliable support during a challenging and uncertain time.
Mary’s family, like many others, had needs that spanned 4 sectors — showing the impact that cross-sector collaboration can have in the lives of our neighbors.
visualizing the connection
Feeding Tampa Bay occupies a unique space in the system: we work alongside almost all nonprofit organizations in the social services space and we connect to those using the most services – the food insecure. By leveraging this position, we have an opportunity to build partnerships that develop into a better community of care. We are already convening healthcare partnerships, education collaboratives and workforce services that have broken down barriers to use and created outcomes that last. Facilitating access, connecting providers, and consolidating services across all sectors will lead to a more efficient, effective, and trustworthy system.