- 800.548.5563
- southernillinoiscoalition@gmail.com
- 700 Logan College Rd, Carterville, IL 62918
By aligning their work, and developing shared processes to achieve common outcomes, Coalition members drive systems development that also advances the work of their own organization. Partners use common data to design and implement systems change in small iterative cycles that adjust as system parts interact.
help community systems developers strengthen and organize their work. The Southern Illinois Coalition for Children and Families utilizes both the Collective Impact and Strengthening Families frameworks in their efforts.
Through systems development, members can not only advance a shared community agenda but also improve and strengthen their own programs. Coalition members are actively involved in building strong community systems at the regional level and in local communities throughout the fifteen-county area in southern Illinois.
Today’s families face many challenges. Support to overcome those challenges helps keep the family strong. The Southern Illinois Coalition for Children and Families implements the Strengthening Families approach in its work to build the following protective factors in families.
Strengthening Families is a framework developed by the Center for the Study for Social Policy over the last decade to prevent child abuse and neglect. This approach provides a valuable framework to help child welfare systems, early education and other programs work with parents.
Partners in the coalition have a long history of collaborating with one another on special projects and initiatives. However, the Coalition’s work goes beyond traditional collaboration and utilizes a Collective Impact approach for community systems building.
To put it simply, Collective Impact is when a group of individuals, agencies or programs from different sectors commit to a common agenda for solving one or more complex social problem. This is done by coordinating efforts and working together around a clearly defined goal/goals.
Five conditions lead to meaningful results from collective impact: a common agenda, common progress measures, mutually reinforcing activities, communication and a backbone organization that takes on the role of managing the collaboration.
Oversight of the Coalition is the responsibility of the Coalition’s Governance Council. As per the Coalition’s bylaws, the Council’s membership includes 10 representatives from core lead agencies and up to 7 at large members. The core lead agencies have missions that align with the Coalition’s goals and have demonstrated a willingness to dedicate in-kind resources to assist in executing strategies and meeting objectives. Core Lead Agencies are most often those who oversee multiple programs and/or those with the capacity to serve as fiscal agent for any of the Coalition’s special projects. The Core lead agencies are identified below. The Governance Council meets bimonthly on the first Wednesday of every other month via zoom at 1:00 pm.
The Coalition’s Action Team chairpersons, along with representatives from key community system partners are also participants in this meeting.
The Coalition’s members are an actively engaged and committed group of educators, social service providers, business owners, and community leaders. They work together on Action Teams and participate in Coalition initiatives or events designed to move the work forward.
