Thrive Iowa Collective Impact meetings to be held in Clayton, Fayette counties

Families needing help in Fayette and Clayton Counties will soon have new opportunities to find assistance in their own communities. Iowa HHS recently selected Northeast Iowa Community Action Corporation as the backbone organization for the Thrive Iowa initiative in Clayton and Fayette counties. To introduce community partners to the initiative, collective impact meetings will be held in each county.

A collective impact meeting will be held in Elkader and West Union on Thursday, February 12, where community leaders taking part in Thrive Iowa will learn how to help their neighbors in need. Thrive Iowa is a community-led initiative that helps participants overcome crisis using community resources. The initiative is centered on the collective impact model, designed by Arkansas-based Restore Hope, and is focused on strengthening community partners to work together to help families go from crisis to career.

The goal of Thrive Iowa is to coordinate existing services in a community, such as the communities within Fayette and Clayton Counties, so that more individuals and families in crisis are able to become stable and ultimately in a place where they can thrive.

“Collective impact is a structured way for government and community groups to work toward the same outcomes using shared data and measuring outcomes,” said Paul Chapman, Executive Director of Restore Hope. He added that by collective impact families experience one coordinated system instead of multiple fragmented services that can be difficult to navigate.

Chapman helped start Restore Hope in 2015, as Arkansas was faced with an alarming crisis with young families and a high incarceration rate. Through community affiliation organizations, Arkansas families were able to get the specific help and guidance needed to face their challenges and do so by local grassroots efforts.

Chapman, along with Iowa HHS staff and local leaders, will be in Fort Madison on Wednesday, February 11, and in both Elkader and West Union on Thursday, February 12, to discuss the power of collective impact to produce positive change.

“When community providers can align their services, they achieve better outcomes, Chapman said. “I hope Iowa sees fewer families stuck in crisis, better outcomes for children, and more efficient use of resources.”

Thrive Iowa is currently helping families in Fayette and Clayton Counties, as well as Black Hawk, Lee, Madison, Van Buren, Buena Vista, Warren, Webster, Cass and Henry Counties.

Thrive State Director Page Humphrey said Iowa HHS is expanding the initiative over the next two years across the state.

“Thrive Iowa helps connect families with resources in their communities, but it’s more than resource navigation. It equips communities to work together in a coordinated way to help families in their own community. It’s Iowans helping Iowans.”

Humphrey is the Community Services Bureau Chief at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

“Iowa has strong local leaders and assets,” Chapman said. “Collective impact helps connect those strengths into a unified, measurable approach that moves families from crisis to career

The collective impact meetings will be held on Thursday, Feb. 12 at the following locations:

Elkader: 10:30 a.m., Public Meeting Room, Clayton County Office Building, 600 Gunder Rd. NE, Elkader, Iowa 52043

West Union: 1 p.m., Heiserman Room, West Union Community Library, 210 N. Vine St., West Union, Iowa 52175