On March 30, 2023, people gathered across Southwest Florida to discuss pressing regional issues, organizational priorities, needs and wants, stresses and strains, and how collectively we build a more thriving community. Jointly offered through the Collier Community Foundation, Collaboratory, and the Charlotte Community Foundation, On the Table SWFL is designed to bring together small groups in open conversation. Future Ready Collier convened a virtual chat among network members to talk about collective impact, partnership, and how coming together benefits us all.
On the Table Participants
The group included voices from Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Sun Coast, Boys & Girls Club of Collier County, Champions For Learning, the Immokalee Foundation, Junior Achievement, and the YMCA of Southwest Florida. With Collier County encompassing such a large geographic area, and respecting the limitations on participants’ time, the discussion was held via Zoom. However, the conversation was rich and inclusive, a testament in part to the mutual trust established within the Future Ready Collier network over the years.
Benefits of Collaboration and Communication
There was broad agreement around many of the positive characteristics evident throughout Collier County. Within Future Ready Collier, for example, over 60 organizations and entities are represented. Through their involvement with Future Ready Collier, partners have regularly celebrated how effective it can be, through the power of the network, to ask for help, to research best practices, to learn what peer organizations are doing, to minimize duplicated services, and to generally enhance each other’s efforts. Moreover, this degree of shared engagement is unique, not commonly observed across regional nonprofit and community-focused initiatives.
Enhanced communication and collaboration equally make it possible for programs to excel. Organizations know they can focus on their core mission because a peer agency complements their services through a related, but distinct, mission. Working closely with the school district helps ensure that students receive supports both in and outside of school. Importantly, those in conversation acknowledged, collectively our community has committed to creating a better future for our students, which helps our region flourish as a whole. Believing that outcomes are better achieved when the work is collaborative is an important component of Future Ready Collier’s growth.
The Challenges we Face
While life-changing services are successfully delivered in Collier County every day, conversation participants were equally aware of circumstances that challenge students, families, educators, administrators, nonprofit leaders, and our region. Shortages in attainably priced housing have made it even harder for schools and nonprofits to hire enough staff. In turn, staffing difficulties make it hard for schools and nonprofits to meet student and family needs.
Complicating these significant practical constraints is the inevitable personal drain felt by teachers and nonprofit leaders. After years of back-to-back crises, those who have made it their personal mission to serve are confronting burn-out, chronic stress, exhaustion from working long hours to make up shortfalls, and their own potential insecurities related to work and housing. It is essential that conversations about mental wellness are inclusive of everyone.
Together we Can
Future Ready Collier’s ongoing role in serving these community providers, as well as the students and families of Collier County, is as a trusted facilitator. Part of what On the Table SWFL recognizes is the value in convening for conversation that can be open, vulnerable, celebratory, challenging, trusting, and ultimately solutions-oriented. Of course, no one expects an hour on Zoom to solve the world’s biggest problems. But when we know we’re in it together, it’s possible to keep up the energy and passion required to do the work. To learn more about Future Ready Collier please contact info@futurereadycollier.org.