Racism, poverty, failing education systems and other problems at times seem impossible to address.The High Performing Communities (HPC) framework is a way to get all the people in a community to work together to get to the root of particular problems and identify key issues that must be addressed – with a focus on “getting the impossible done”. It is a program for those who are interested in building communities that are sustainable and impactful, learning how to become truly collaborative, and working towards changing people’s hearts and minds.
HPC uses the best practices of appreciative inquiry, imagining the assets of the community and how to use them, and then bringing forth best practices to evoke change.
Highlights of the work of HPC:
Economic Revitalization (Linking disparate parties to common interests):
Through engaging with local and regional partners, HPC was deployed to work in one of the poor areas of the US to engage Chevron to undertake its first economic revitalization project on US soil. Using the HPC framework, facilitators brought together industry, government, progressive communities, and even organizations at odds with large companies to the table to forge a plan for economic revitalization. It worked! Measurable Outcomes: They built broad-based support and improved economic self-sufficiency and helped small businesses create and sustain jobs through a partnership of community and economic development agencies, community leaders and families, business and industry, regional workforce development organizations, relevant government entities, small business support resources, and other key stakeholders.
Crime Prevention, Youth Intervention and Anti-Racism Initiatives:
What happens when you can bring together racists, Law enforcement, the Black Political Association, and more than 30 other multi-cultural stakeholders? In an environment where the Police Chief was openly, but falsely, accused of launching an effort to encourage Black and racialized citizens out of the area, through the use of the HPC Framework and strategy, they were able to redefine the relationships between schools, law enforcement and community. Measurable Outcomes: Kid’s coming out of gangs, youth of color hanging out with the white Police Chief. An example of the success of the program occurred when a Black youth caused a ruckus in the school office resulting in violence and police intervention. In the past, where the youth would have been hauled and roughly handled by the police and justice system, a mediator intervened, consultations were held and a reconciliation between the youth, the school and the police was achieved. Noting this occurred in Antioch, California which experienced its last lynching in 1978.
Working with the Youth Intervention Network and engaging the HPC framework, facilitators gathered together police, school, mental health agencies, faith-based groups, youth leaders, Children and Family Services and the U.S. Attorney’s office to address youth violence, absenteeism and racism. The program was able to change the perception of the young people and the broader community. People moved from ‘those kids to “our kids”.
Redefining Education
With budget reductions and an emphasis away from Art’s education, an HPC approach supported the development of integrating Arts education into the curriculum, not through a specialized class, but throughout the whole curriculum of the whole school. Musicians, poets, and dance performers trained teachers in art’s content connected to math, science and literacy. Measurable Outcomes: Changing the way art is used in education systems – integrating arts into curriculum resulted in more skills, more graduates, higher GPA’s. Effective partnerships with the school district and local industry/businesses are crucial for work with children, youth and families because rigorous, relevant and relational learning experiences that engage students is a huge deterrent to inappropriate and violent behavior and because integrated academic and technical education that promotes essential work ready skills helps prepare students for adulthood and the difficult choices facing them all along the way.
The HPC training provides tools needed to utilize the HPC framework. The training is effective for groups needing to build key community partnerships to leverage resources and create sustainable solutions. For example:
• Working with advocates and the formerly incarcerated, and with family and community members to provide comprehensive services for local residents returning home from incarceration gain access to the resources, services and support they need to successfully reintegrate into the community and reduce recidivism.
• Effective partnerships with environment enhancing services and recreational organizations (health, nutrition, sports, family support, public service, etc.) and with community-based and faith organizations can help students become engaged in their own education and in their communities, enhance their level of physical activity as well as their environmental and health awareness and sense of interconnection, nurture spirituality and socialization, and build leadership skills, interdependence, and confidence.
We train in the five phases of HPC:
1. Fact Finding as a Means to Mitigate Habitus
2. Identification of Root Issues
3. Research and Data Analysis leading to validated indicators
• Analysis and Gap Identification (who is community- invitations to the table)
4. Model Design
• Resource and Systems Alignment
• Service Delivery Design
5. Structural Detailing
• Collective vs. Collaborative Strategies
• The Importance of Outcomes and Accountability Measures
• Developing Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) Across Agencies
• Creating an Implementation Plan
Program Cost: $745 ($590 tuition+$155 meals/accommodations)
Local Price: $650 (program cost without overnight, without breakfast)
Please register at least 2 weeks in advance to secure your place in this program
Leadership
Iris Archuleta
Iris Archuleta is co-founder and CEO of Emerald HPC International and the architect of Emerald’s High Performing Communities (HPC) framework. A lawyer, and recognized leader in the areas of community reinvestment and collaboration, she has been called upon to speak and lead discussions on the economic condition of California’s inner city communities and how community development is accomplished. She has spoken before an extensive range of audiences and venues. She has met with and discussed community economic development and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) strategies with notable leaders such as Chairman Greenspan of the Federal Reserve Bank; Eugene Ludwig, Comptroller of the Currency; Senator Ted Kennedy; Congresswoman Maxine Waters; and high-ranking officials abroad.
As the chief consultant to the Ecumenical Development Initiative – USA and the California Community Investment Partnership (CCIP) she developed and led initiatives aimed at small business development in California inner cities and rural communities with high levels of poverty and unemployment. She has also previously served as a Fellow with The Greenlining Coalition, a multi-cultural, statewide coalition of community groups committed to ending redlining and promoting community economic development. Iris has served as a member of the Antioch Police Crime Prevention Commission, the Delta Memorial Hospital Foundation Board, and the Advisory Board of Opportunity Junction, and Assistant Coach for a Junior Giants team.
She has also volunteered her time facilitating Board development training for the Antioch Chamber of Commerce, One Day at a Time, Compass Mentoring, Parents Connected, Antioch Christian Center, Sutter Delta Memorial Hospital Foundation, Delta Martial Arts, the Antioch Police Activities League, and the Youth Intervention Network. Her service as co-founder of the Youth Intervention Network (YIN) was recognized by the United Nations at the opening celebration of the U.N. Peace University at The Hague in the Netherlands in 2012.
In addition, she is a co-recipient of several awards for her work with YIN, including the 2008 Contra Costa County Juvenile Justice award, the 2009 Antioch Citizen of the Year award, and the 2009 Dow Chemical Company Martin Luther King Community Service award. In addition to her consulting and community service activities, she teaches Urban Politics as an adjunct professor at the California State University East Bay – Hayward campus.
Keith Archuleta
Keith Archuleta has two bachelor degrees from Stanford University – one in Communications with distinction and one in African and African American Studies with honors – and a Masters degree from the School of Business and Professional Studies at the University of San Francisco. He is the former Chairman/CEO of an internet-based start-up company in Silicon Valley and a former Regent of John F. Kennedy University. He is past President of the Opportunity Junction Board of Directors and is currently Board Chair-Elect of the East Bay Leadership Council and Board President of the Youth Intervention Network.
Some of the highlights of his work includes providing training and planning to the Craigavon Burrough Economic Development Department in Northern Ireland on a peace and violence reduction initiative. He provided project consulting to the Contra Costa Economic Partnership – Workforce Initiative as an intermediary to secure a workforce pipeline into high-wage, high-skill, high-demand careers in the regional economy through the creation of a seamless system of transition for students from high school to post-secondary education, training and careers in Contra Costa County. And he managed the Young African American Achievers Program (YAAAP), a San Francisco city-wide, after-school collaborative between church, education, business, and community-based organizations to offer academic enrichment, recreation and healthy snacks, cultural enrichment, career counseling, and job preparation to middle and high school students.
Keith also serves on the Antioch Economic Development Commission, the Antioch Redevelopment Oversight Board, and the CSU-East Bay Gateways Executive Committee. An ordained minister, he serves as Minister of Community Development at Antioch Christian Center and on the CCISCO Clergy Caucus. He is also a Certified Facilitator of the Dialogue for Peaceful Change methodology. He has assisted numerous nonprofit organizations in capacity building, fund development, and strategic planning and has served as Executive Director of several Bay Area nonprofit organizations, including Contra Costa Court Appointed Special Advocates for children (CASA) for seven years.
He is a 2012 Man of Merit honoree from the Contra Costa Zero Tolerance Initiative/Delta Project, a recipient of the 2006 Dow Chemical Company Martin Luther King Community Service award, a 2004 Antioch Citizen of the Year nominee, and a nominee for the 2011 César Chávez Award for Exemplary Community Service.
Jason Blanch
Jason Blanch, Program Resource Group (PRG) facilitator, is a home schooling parent of two children under 10. He holds a master’s degree in Adult Education with a focus in community development. The methodology for his research was appreciative inquiry. Jason currently works as an addictions counsellor, a supply teacher in the federal prison system and previously worked as a counselor with New Directions, a program for men addressing abuse issues. Jason is currently a federal Green Party candidate and has extensive community development experience working locally and internationally. He has a daily meditation practice and is a yoga enthusiast.