Reach Out Strategic Plan 2016-2020
We envisiona vibrant Inland Southern California that achievesits potential for communities that areconnected, healthy, and equitable.
MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Since 1969, Reach Out has been dedicated to embracing communities, youth, and families to strengthen the human bonds that enable all members of the community to grow and thrive.
Despite the Great Recession, over the past 10 years Reach Out has strategically grown from $220,000 a year budget to over $3 million and has increased staffing from 4 to 45providing 18 programs serving more than20,000 young people and families per year throughout eastern San Gabriel Valley, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.
The board of directors and management met in July 2014 for a one day retreat to begin discussing future direction for Reach Out. During the following meeting the board voted to convene a Strategic Planning Committee consisting if select board members the executive director and agency directors.
Through a dynamic and iterative co-design process culminating in April, 2016, the Strategic Planning Committee accomplished the following:
  • Identified major internal and external environmental factors and their potential impact on Reach Out;
  • Revised the organizations Vision Statement;
  • Developed an organizational Theory of Change;
  • Identified mission driven organizational goals and core strategies;
  • Identified one year strategic priorities;
  • Identified major areas of focus for the next 2 years to build Reach Out's organizational capabilities, capacity and geographic footprint;
  • Developed plans and process for communicating, monitoring, and updating Reach Out's strategic plan.
This new five-year Strategic Plan will serve as a “roadmap” that will enhance Reach Out’s capacity to ensure that young people have access to networks of support, quality education, career options, and opportunities to develop the skills to succeed in their lives and that families thrive is safe and healthy communities.
Subsequently implementing the operational plan will require a multi-pronged effort with broad participation from our board of directors, management, staff, community, nonprofit and system partners.
Diana Fox, Executive Director
INTRODUCTION
This strategic plan is a concise statement of Reach Out’s long –range direction and priorities over the coming five-years.
The five-year period of this strategic plan will be a time of assessing and deepening Reach Out’s approaches to its work. With a fresh perspective on its mission, understanding what it does well, and the environment in which we operate, we will pursue the following three core mission driven goals:
  • Goal 1: Break barriers to educational achievement
  • Goal 2: Expand Economic opportunities
  • Goal 3: Create safe, healthy and innovative communities
The five-year time horizon reflects our belief that the complex and interrelated social issues facing the eastern San Gabriel Valley, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties can only be addressed through a long range effort and sustained commitment. At the same time, we recognize the need to pursue our goals with alertness and adaptability to new challenges, opportunities, and lessons, as they emerge.
Thisplanistheproductofasix‐monthprocessledbyStrategic Planning Committee consisting of select board members the executive director and agency directors.
Theremainderofthisdocumentisorganizedintothefollowingsections:
  • Section I: Strategic Context and Process: In listening to a broad range of input from the
    diverse stakeholders we learned what were the most important factors that contribute to
    peopleachieving vibrant, equitable and healthy community. This sectionoutlines our strategic process that guided ourthinkingaboutgoals and strategies for the future.
  • Section II: Core Ideology: We articulate ourenduringcommitmentsthat willenableReach Out toactwithclarityofpurposeandintegrity.
  • Section III: Goals and Key Strategies: We summarizethehighestpriority mission driven goals
    and strategies that weaspiretoachieveoverthenextfiveyears.
  • Section IV: Our Way Forward: What wehave learnedandhowdotheselessons
    informourleadershipactivitiesaswemovetowardthefuture.
SECTION I: STRATEGIC CONTEXT AND PROCESS
This section outlines the framework and approach that outlined our strategic planning process. The image below provides a graphic description of our framework.
Strategic Planning Framework (Discover,DNA, Design and Deploy)






The approach that was utilized to complete Reach Out’s Strategic Planning was guided by the following phased process:
  • Phase I: Gap Analysis and Landscape Assessment
  • Phases II-IV: Refining the Strategic Direction
  • Phase II: Vision and Mission
  • Phase III: Goals, Outcomes and Strategies
  • Phase IV: Decision-making Criteria
The framework was particularly good for Reach Out because it: relied on an analysis of current and historical data; authentically engages internal and external stakeholders whose points of view are critical to a successful planning programs and policy positions; accounts for the environmental factors that impact the future of Reach Out; and examines all aspects of the organization as related to and interdependent on each other for optimal effectiveness and community impact.
Phase I: Gap Analysis and Landscape Assessment
At the start of the planning process a comprehensive gap analysis and landscape assessment was completed to establish the general condition of the agency and solicit critical input from key stakeholders. In most cases, identifying and understanding the critical issues leads directly to the development of goals and outcomes that are the core of this strategic plan. An additional assessments was completed that focused on Reach Out’s role in the regional ecosystems and how Reach Out’s vision, mission and investments relates to those of the county’s (Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles) and state and federal agencies.
Phases II-IV: Refining the Strategic Direction
The next three phases each examined critical strategic questions for Reach Out. Each phase involves initial discussions with the Board-designated committee and staff followed by feedback sessions with external stakeholders and community members. The result was a dynamic and iterative co-design process wherein real-time input from board, staff, stakeholders and community members and directly informed the questions and substance of the subsequent phase.
Phase II: Vision and Mission: Discussions about revisions to the vision and mission were completed and adopted by the Board of Directors.
Phase III: Goals and Strategies: The goals and strategies grew out of input and decisions from Phase II, and serve as Reach Out’s blueprint for operationalizing the vision and mission.
Phase IV: Decision-making Criteria: The decision-making process helped to finalize goals and strategies that would ensure a high degree of alignment between current and future decisions about investment and implementation.
Incorporating External Feedback: The planning framework included a number of recurring engagement activities in Phases II-IV to solicit and incorporate candid stakeholder feedback.
These activities – tailored to the norms and preferences of the different constituent groups – sought to build the “trust capital” necessary for successful implementation. While the specifics of the outreach and engagement strategy were be shaped by findings from Phase I, activities will include:
  • Key informant interviews, focus groups with stakeholder groups representing nonprofit, philanthropic and academic institutions. Special care will be given to engaging local business leaders whose support is critical to neighborhood revitalization efforts.
  • Public forms, focus groups and individual interviews with community members.
  • Regular updates on the planning process utilizing existing Reach Out communication vehicles.
SECTION II: CORE IDEOLOGY: MISSION, VISION, AND OPERATING VALUES
Through the2016strategic planning processrevisions in vision,mission,andvalues were completed and were approvedbytheBoard of Directors.
Over the course of our meetings, consensus developed among members of the Strategic Planning Committee around the need to ensure that the strategic planning process would be guided by Reach Out’s Vision and Mission:
We envision a vibrant Inland Southern California that achieves its potential for communities that are connected, healthy, and equitable.
Reach Out Missionis to strengthen communities throughout the Inland Southern California by bringing people together to solve our region's toughest issues: breaking barriers to educational achievement, expanding economic opportunities, and creating safe, healthy and innovative communities.
Operating Values
  1. Commitment
  • Why:We believe that dedication and loyalty to our clients is the bridge to healthy communities.
  • How:Following through with dedication by going above and beyond for every client that we serve.
  1. Fun
  • Why:We believe in enjoying what we do. We take time out of each day to laugh, because creating a free, creative, and happy work environment carries out into the communities we serve.
  • How:Demonstrating and encouraging our staff to have a fearless, creative, and harmonious work environment that promotes health and wellness as well as professional growth.
  1. Innovation
  • Why:We believe in finding solutions to the challenges that we face by incorporating creative past and present ideas and molding them together to create new and fresh solutions.
  • How:Being creative and proactive with anticipation to stay ahead of community trends.
  1. Integrity
  • Why:We believe in doing the right thing when no one is watching.
  • How:Remaining accountable to the community, Reach out’s values, and oneself, even when it is difficult.
  1. Passion
  • Why:We believe that our work is a reflection of ourselves, our purpose, our goals, and our commitment to our community.
  • How:Being enthusiastic and dedicated to our life’s calling. It is our burning and sustainable desire to serve the community with innovative and relentless determination that goes beyond what is expected.
  1. Respect
  • Why:We believe that building respect is the foundation of our organization.
  • How:Embracing everyone’s differences through actively listening to ideas and engaging in discussion to work towards understanding.
  1. Unity
  • Why:We believe in diversity. We embrace each other’s differences and see the value in all people as we work to build healthy communities.
  • How:Striving to promote diversity and equality while finding common goals that bring together resources.
  1. Wellness
  • Why:We believe in cultivating wellness so people may have equal access and opportunities to healthy living in the community.
  • How:Promoting healthy communities that make their physical, mental, and emotional well-being a priority.
SECTION III: GOALS AND KEY STRATEGIES
The Strategic Plan emphasizes three core mission driven goals, along with complimentary core strategies and operational capacity and capabilities.
Key Goals
  • Goal 1: Break barriers to educational achievement
  • Goal 2: Expand Economic opportunities
  • Goal 3: Create safe, healthy and innovative communities
CORE Strategies
  • Connectivity: Influence knowledge, foster networks, facilitate action and leadership
  • Capacity Building: Build systems, structures, and skills with multiple stakeholders that increase efficiency, effectiveness, and scale necessary for solving social issues and challenges
  • Programs: Creating opportunities and building capabilities through a social ecosystem of programs and services designed to support youth and families in succeeding and navigating a complex world
  • Policy: Increase knowledge and analytic capacity around the most challenging issues, facilitate common understanding, develop strategies that will catalyze collective interest resulting in changes in policy and practice and sustainable systemic change
To the extent that a strategic plan is a “road map,” our goals describe the desired "destination” – where we want to be in 2020.
The Strategy Map below outlines our three primary goals arefollowed by key strategies that will be employed to achieve our goals.
Goal 1: Break barriers to educational achievement
Rational: Reduce disparitiesineducationalachievement basedonsocioeconomicstatus, race/ethnicity and effectively address barriers that will result in increased student achievement graduation rates and career opportunitiesfor students in the Inland Empire.
Key Strategies:
Capacity Building
  • Ensure that all youth have access to the resources they need for educational and career success.
  • Increase access to opportunities for social-emotional development, particularly for the most vulnerable children and youth.
  • Implement programs and support partners that improve student preparedness for college and career and result in increased college readiness, enrollment, and graduation.
Programs
  • Support the development and alignment of programs that foster social-emotional development of children and youth in and out of school.
  • Support high-quality, coordinated services for parents and guardians to be leaders in the learning and development of their children.
  • Increase awareness of and access to programs and services for families.
  • Ensure that services and programs for families are client-centered, culturally responsive and welcoming to all families.
Policy
  • Ensure every child has access to consistent, high-quality K–12 learning experiences
  • Advocate for and endorse public policies that promote high-quality learning experiences across the age continuum.
  • Endorse and advocate for public policies and economic opportunities that equip and empower families.
  • Advocate for and endorse public policies that promote the social-emotional development of children and youth.
  • Support the development of comprehensive policy proposals to make college accessible and ensure that all youth earn a credential that leads to a good job.
Goal 2: Expand Economic opportunities
Rational:Foster interconnected and culturally vibrant communities in which low‐income youth and families have the tools and opportunities necessary for jobs andcareers that lead to economic self‐sufficiency.
Key Strategies and Programs
Capacity Building
  • Employ innovative economic development strategies that strengthen career pathway opportunities and support family success.
  • Support the alignment of education and workforce development programs that foster youth employment opportunities and meet current and future employer needs.
Policy
  • Advocate for an integrated pre-K through career education system that effectively prepares students for becoming successful workers and entrepreneurs.
  • Provide a platform for youth voices that raises public awareness about the lack of jobs,alternative pathways to success, and offer concrete solutions to address these issue.
Goal 3: Create safe, healthy and innovative communities
Rational: Utilize multi-sector and multi-strategy approaches to improve community conditions by building upon community assets, tailoring community driven interventions and addressing the role of race and ethnicity in building healthy communities.
Key Strategies
Connectivity
  • Support the related efforts of our public and private partners to improve the health, wellness and safety of children, youth and families
  • Work to address the “siloed” governmental structures and processes that inhibit the development of comprehensive solutions in enhancing safe and healthy communities
Capacity Building
  • Increase access to services that support the health, wellness and safety of children, youth and families, particularly those most vulnerable
  • Promote the development of a culturally-competent and comprehensive system of quality health care and medical home services, including prevention; prenatal; early and continued developmental, mental and behavioral screening and diagnosis; early intervention and on-going treatment.
Policy
  • Advocate for and endorse policies that promote the health, wellness and safety of children, youth and families.
  • Identify and implement policies to support access to affordable health insurance for all children in Inland Southern California.
  • Promote the creation and maintenance of an integrated regional prevention framework that enables communities, public agencies and organizations to collaborate to implement efficient and properly applied evidence-based youth developmentpractices.
  • Identify and implement policies to increase youth success and decrease the number of children entering the juvenile justice and criminal justice system
Reach Out’s Organizational Capacity and Capabilities
Operational Capacity and Capabilities
  • Organizational Leadership: Increase the leadership roles that staff, board members, volunteers, and funders play on key issues in the Inland Empire, especially those that would further our primary goals.
  • Structure, Process, and Resource Alignment: Align and integrate staff and committee structures, resources, and administrative processes in order to achieve our goals.
  • Learning Community: Foster a learning community in which agency staff, board members, volunteers, and partners share learning across disciplines and sectors, and use that learning to assess impact and develop future strategies.
  • Range of Funding Streams: Increase and diversify the range of revenue streams to maximize our effectiveness in connection with the agency's goals.
  • Sustainable Operating Model: Ensure that the agency's operating model is sustainable as circumstances change.
These internal building blocks are the essential organizational capacities that Reach Out will develop and are intended to address issues related to organizational infrastructure, resources and culture.
  1. Organizational Leadership: Increase the leadership roles that staff, board members, volunteers, and funders play on key issues in the Inland Empire, especially those that would further our primary goals.
Rationale: Toaddresssystemicissues,suchaseducationandeconomicopportunity,we
will need to engagemulti‐facetedapproach thatleveragesallof theresources, talents,
andrelationshipsoftheagency and our partners.
Key Strategies
  • Build,nurture,andleveragestrategicrelationshipswithleadersinthepublic,
    private,andnonprofitsectors,andinthecommunity.
  • Developadeepunderstandingofissues,policies,andcommunitytrendsthat
    affectour goals and use this knowledge to shapeappropriatestrategiesandactions.
  • Becomemoreeffectiveleadersbystudyingleadershipmodels,extractingand
    employing those that work best for Reach Out and adjusting
    andsteppingbeyondthemodelswheninnovationisrequired.
  1. Structure, Process, and Resource Alignment: Align and integrate staff and committee structures, resources, and administrative processes in order to achieve our goals.
Rationale:Greater focus on three primary goals offers theagency the opportunity to align its financial resources, people, core business
processes,andinfrastructureinways thatensuregreatereffectivenessand
accountability.
Key Strategies
  • Fosterinternalsystemswithintheagencythat promote collaboration, agility,andefficiencywithinandamongdepartments.
  • Developandimplementatechnologystrategytoachievethegoalsofthestrategicplan.
  • Ensure that the staff of theagency has the capacity, knowledge, skills,andtoolstoachievethegoalsofthestrategicplan.
  • Integrate the work of staff, boardmembers, committee members, and volunteersthrough governance structures that achieve thegoals of the strategicplan.
  1. Learning Community: Foster a learning community in which agency staff, board members, volunteers, and partners share learning across disciplines and sectors, and use that learning to assess impact and develop future strategies.
Rationale:Reach Outbelievesthatmeetingour goalswillrequiredynamiclearningincollaborationwithpartners.Deeperimpactwill
requirebuildingaculturethatsupportsmutualreflection,sharingofinsights,
andcollectiveaction.
Key Strategies
  • Engage in shared learning and decision making to advance our goals
  • Increasetheagency's qualitativeandquantitativeresearchandlearning‐
    centeredevaluationcapability.
  • Develop and sustain a system for assessing the impact of theagency's
    strategiesandactivities.
  • Createandmaintainfeedbackloopsthatallowustolistentothecommunity,
    work with partners to interpret what we hear, and take action on the
    resultinginsights.
  1. Range of Funding Streams: Increase and diversify the range of revenue streams to maximize our effectiveness in connection with the agency's goals.
Rationale: In order to achieve the objectives and carry out the specific strategies
described in this plan,Reach Out will seek to increase unrestrictedfunding opportunities.
Key Strategies
  • Diversifyrevenuestreams(federal, state, regional, philanthropic, individual donors, etc).
  • Incorporate additional information from Fund Development strategy
  1. Sustainable Operating Model: Ensure that the agency's operating model is sustainable as
    circumstances change.
Rationale: Our current operating model is in line with much of the nonprofit field; however predicted changes in federal regulations, increased competition and other unforeseen factors could render this assumption less valid with limited advance notice. In order to ensure the agency’s long-term success we must continually assess our basic assumption, vigilantly monitor leading edge ideas and proactively reshape our operating model to anticipate changes rather than react to them.
Key Strategies
  • Monitor the following areas and identify how they may affect Reach Out’s operating mode: 1) the changing landscape of local, state and federal policy; 2) complimentary cross-sector partners and their ideas, trends and actions; and 3) current and future trends and demographic changes.
  • Ensure that the knowledge of board members and management is fully employed to contribute to the sustainability of the operating model.
  • Engage in deep analysis and projection of Reach Out’s current operation model and modify as needed.
SECTION IV: OUR WAY FORWARD
Since 1969, generations of youth and families from throughout eastern San Gabriel Valley, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties have entrusted Reach Out to be a responsive and agile servant to the community.
This strategic plan embodies our continuing commitment to listen to the diverse voices of the communities we serve and deepen our partnership in every sector and share the lessons and successes that emerge from our work.
As we look to the future, accelerating change, increasing complexity and continued uncertainty will define the strategic landscape and in the midst of these challenges, Reach Out’s intent is clear that we will continue to learn and adapt to achieve our promise in building and promoting vibrant, equitable and healthy communities

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