Beyond the role of making grants, Dade Community Foundation works with communities to actively build partnerships that can transform neighborhoods. The Foundation is the fiscal agent for Little Havana Community Partnership, a collaborative representing a wide array of service providers, and community residents. The Foundation's work with the Partnership reflects its role in helping to champion and facilitate community groups coming together to achieve greater success for residents that any one group could achieve on its own. The Partnership is funded through grants provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and The Children's Trust.
The grant award from The Children's Trust promotes family and community safety resulting in safer children, healthier families, and a stronger community. The Children's Trust is a dedicated source of revenue established by voter referendum to improve the lives of children and families in Miami-Dade County.
The Trust funding builds on Foundation involvement, which began in 2004 when the Partnership asked Dade Community Foundation to steward its grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Little Havana to avoid selecting a single community group to receive the funds and thereby promote collaboration. The Casey Foundation's goal is to advance the premise that children do better when their families are strong, and families do better when they live in places that help them succeed as parents and productive citizens.
From the outset, the Foundation understood that this would not be a traditional fiscal agent role but rather a community building effort with the potential to transform the Little Havana neighborhood from the inside out. The Partnership emerged as a collaborative effort by a group of stakeholders committed to strengthening families, keeping children safe and building a safe and healthy neighborhood for children and families.
A renewed community spirit has emerged because of the Partnership's work and its efforts continue to grow. Through collaboration, the Partnership is transforming the way social services and communities do business at the neighborhood and systems level. Some of the ways the Partnership is changing the way services are provided to families is through the Service Provider Network, an integrated network of service providers and Community Health Workers/Natural Helpers that ensure that families have services that work for them and are connected to formal and informal supports within their neighborhood. A new resident led community association has emerged because of resident leadership training and is exploring how they may best serve as a catalyst for community change in their neighborhood. The association with the support of technical assistance provided by the partnership is exploring how through civic participation they may develop resident led community projects to improve neighborhood safety. The Partnership is also working closely with the City of Miami, City of Miami Police Department, Miami-Dade County and Miami-Dade Public Schools in order to coordinate and leverage existing resources to improve the lives of all children and families in Little Havana.
To learn more about the Little Havana Community Partnership or how the Foundation may work with your partnership, contact Betty Alonso, Associate Director of Programs, at 305-371-2711.
