A Coalition is defined as “a minimally formal strategic alliance model in which organizations agree to relinquish a minimal amount of organizational autonomy to achieve a political or social change.”  The Upper Perkiomen Valley Community Services Coalition (UPVCSC) was formed specifically to fulfill the work emerging from more than one year of documented community work including four community learning events and a community summit held over three days. There seems to be some desire present for the UPVCSC to continue after this project as a more formal organization like a collaborative which would expand its scope and be open to more members.

When the UPVCSC Board convened in November, there were two MOU documents created: one signed by the executive directors of The Open Line, YFS, and Senior Center and one signed by all nine representatives of the UPVCSC Board – detailing the common understanding and goal of the coalition work and everyone’s support of it.

Since November 22, 2010, there have been monthly Coalition Board Meetings, monthly Team Leader Meetings, frequent leadership meetings, several Executive Board meetings, monthly Funders meetings, and periodic Team Meetings.  During this time, there has been support documentation to illustrate progress on this project work.  Along with meeting minutes, there are the following:

• UPVCSC Formula for Success Chart– graphic depicting the components of this project post summit.
• UPVCSC Communication Forums – a graphic depicting the structure in which all communications were requested to occur to facilitate transparency, dialogue and documentation.
• UPVCSC Overview Feb 2011 – a synopsis taken mostly from my written proposal to our funders for funding of this project.
• UPV Community Services – graphic showing the current inventory of coalition member programs and services in list form and a graphic depicting the required building blocks of a new future organization delivering community services in the UPV.
• UPVCSC Vol Time Cost – spreadsheet detailing a running estimate of the value of this project so far.
• UPVCSC Communications Team Notes – document summarizing the common denominators and language of all of the documentation from learning event and summit activities including the aspiration statement worksheets and summit action team game plans.
• In addition Team Merge produced a detailed Strategic Alliance Spectrum with support documentation distributed to the boards of Open Line, YFS, and the Senior Center.  Recently, each Team Merge member was asked to submit a model depicting their vision of what the alliance would be.   In process is an informational exchange meeting hosted by Team Merge specifically for the board members of Open Line, YFS, and the Senior Center – this was requested by the Coalition Board May 9, 2011.

All of these documents have been distributed and discussed within the coalition working framework and are available to anyone.   As much as possible, the goals of the UPVCSC have been consistently documented as this project has evolved:  to complete the work of the action teams, determine the best type of strategic alliance of the Open Line, YFS & Senior Center, and build a new viable, sustainable and fundable agency around that alliance that will be bigger than the sum of the parts, so that human services remain in the UPV.  There have been leadership visits and team leader updates at member board meetings to increase awareness and knowledge.

It is arduous and sometimes terrifying work to complete when there are still unknowns and the future has not been totally mapped out, but we are making great progress.  It has been difficult to keep the focus off the fate of 3 agencies (especially with the added economic and budget pressures), but focused on 9 organizations coming together with the community’s input creating a new platform delivering community services to all of the people in the valley.  This work was voiced by the community in the learning events and summits, articulated through aspiration statements and prescribed as the work of the action teams.

In the February 22, 2010 facilitated meeting by Ray Wells, community leaders stated trust and respect are essential ingredients to the success of this or any project.  We first must trust and respect ourselves and then others.  This means operating within the agreed to guidelines and venues engaged in authentic sometimes difficult conversations.  We need to do better at checking in with each other in every dialogue.  As we continue, it is essential for everyone to be courageous and forthright in our meeting venues or so that people have an opportunity to respond accordingly and we have an accurate picture of where everyone stands.