Archive
Omaha Community Foundation project assesses the Omaha landscape with the goal of affecting needed change
The Landscape is a data-driven project by the Omaha Community Foundation that tries reconciling cold hard facts with warm personal stories in order to get a better, more intimate grasp of how the city’s doing in key quality of life areas. Ultimately, the foundation hopes the project gives it and the organizations that donate through it and the nonprofits it partners with a more measurable appreciation for the community’s chronic and emerging needs and ways to impact positive change in addressing those needs through philanthropic giving. This is my story about The Landscape for the May-June-July 2017 issue of Metro Magazine (https://issuu.com/metmago/docs/thegivingguideandeventbook2017).
Omaha Community Foundation project assesses the Omaha landscape with the goal of affecting needed change
©by Leo Adam Biga
Appeared in the May-June-July 2017 issue of Metro Magazine (https://issuu.com/metmago/docs/thegivingguideandeventbook2017)
Listening and learning at core of project
Seeking a more equitable Omaha for all
Data points measuring quality of life factors and stories telling people’s actual lived experiences behind the statistics converge in a new Omaha Community Foundation project.
Launched in 2016, The Landscape is a data-driven look at how the metro’s doing in such key focus areas as health, neighborhoods, safety, transportation, workforce and education. Implicit in the project is a reality-check that finds Omaha’s high Best Place to Live rankings tempered by issues of chronic poverty, gang violence, sexually transmitted diseases, underemployment, educational achievement gaps and other disparities among underserved populations. The project website connects community stakeholders to content that provides snapshot glimpses of where Omaha stands, for better or worse, in these areas.
Though it went live in 2016, the project hallmarks of using date plus stories was conceived in 2014. Even before that, in 2010, the foundation committed to using data and indicators as part of its strategic plan. The Landscape culls together metrics from various sources to create a free, online public access base whose information is not just for academic or public information purposes but to guide the foundation’s donor, knowledge and nonprofit partners to activate positive change.
“We’re not interested in collecting information for information’s sake. We care about what we can act upon and what we can really do to potentially drive results,” said Omaha Community Foundation President and CEO Sara Boyd. “There’s a lot of discourse not only in this community but across many communities in this country around issues of inequity, poverty, race. For us this isn’t a fad or a trend. We care about this community. We believe the real power to change some of these issues is at the community level.”
At its heart are people’s voices that illustrate and intersect the very challenges and opportunities illuminated by The Landscape.
Boyd said, “We’re spending the vast majority of 2017 really being out in the community and with partner organizations to further connect people with the information about The Landscape and to gain the benefit of more personal experiences from people who live with some of the issues highlighted in the project. We’re really interested in the collaboration and alignment opportunities to be in relationship and conversation with people who do experience these things.”
The Landscape is only as compelling as the information fed into it.
“We really rely on organizations in this community who do this on a more regular basis and already have a vast amount of information or a process ongoing for having these kinds of conversations. We are looking at how this project plugs into, intersects and highlights some of that work and the data available in our areas of focus.”
Keeping it real, keeping it human
Boyd said the goal is to keep people, not numbers, at the forefront since data only tells part of the story. The real essence and nuance about a situation comes not from stats but from people describing their own experiences with everything from domestic violence to unemployment to homelessness.
“We’re trying to balance the data with the voice of people and ground in greater understanding the humanity of what we’re talking about. Looking at the data in isolation, there may be things missed in that study and interpretation that a conversation with somebody who is living in a specific circumstance for some time could help really inform and enlighten.”
The project website, http://www.thelandscapeomaha.org, highlighted the focus areas of health, neighborhoods, safety and transportation to start with. Workforce and education focus areas get rolled out this spring.
A public service media campaign is putting the project’s data-driven descriptor out there. The site tag line reads: “Let’s make our city a great place to call home – no matter who you are or where you live.”
Boyd said the next step is explaining “what this project is all about” and how people can interface with it. The website includes lists of nonprofits to engage, an action kit with specific ways to connect, collaborate and respond and a resources guide for social services and supports. There’s also a page where folks can share their stories. The site is getting traffic and the foundation is fielding calls and emails.
Identifying disparities and gaps
“I think there’s a lot of intrigue,” Boyd said. “There’s certainly questions around what this information really does mean for us. So part of 2017 is also about having conversations about what our intentions are and how we as a community might be able to utilize this information as a place of power to really help us coalesce around issues at potentially greater levels.
“Some of the data is gut-reinforcing because it confirms our sense for how we’re doing as a community in things like healthcare, where people in poverty naturally do not have healthcare coverage at a high rate. Other pieces of information are more surprising because it runs a little counter to the broader narrative of how we talk about things like poverty. For example, there’s a real housing disparity with black Omahans. Black home ownership here is 8 percent lower than the national average.
“Generally, I think we regard the quality of life and cost of living here as being very affordable but when you actually look at what it costs to raise a family and have a home in our community compared with wages earned, it is affordable for some of us, but not for all of us.”
She said The Landscape’s broad scope provides an accurate picture of Omaha across many sectors.
“If you put everything in a bucket and average it all out it might look really good and it does in many areas for Omaha. Many people, myself included, have a very high quality of life here. But what’s the quality of life for the least well-off community member and how do we use that as a barometer for how we’re doing and how do we raise the levels of those circumstances? If we look at it that way, then I think we’re all going to be better off.”
Boyd said foundation staff and board members acknowledge “these are difficult subjects” that greater Omaha needs to focus on. She makes clear the foundation doesn’t pretend “to know all the answers for what are difficult, entrenched challenges.”
“We don’t know everything,” she said, “and we are grateful for the partnership of so many organizations and people who already contribute to our knowledge, and that will continue. The information on the website today isn’t necessarily perfect. I’m sure somebody might be able to find an insight or add a different perspective to some of these things. It’s a work in progress. We expect this project continues to iterate as we work more in the community.”
No easy answers or quick fixes
The Landscape. she noted, is a resource for the community by the community.
“It takes the community to really wrap around some of these issues to see if we can do better in certain areas. That’s part of the driving force behind this project.”
Boyd emphasized that problems generations in the making will take time to reverse and that the foundation is in it for the long haul.
“We’re not suggesting we throw information out and there’s a tight and tidy solution in six months or even a year from now where we report things have moved remarkably. But it matters. These are large and very consequential issues that require significant attention and persistent focus in order to really get underneath all of the underlying factors and to look at where you might look at drivers of change. Then you have to stick with it as a community to try and make progress. That’s years in the making.”
The reality behind The Landscape’s data sometimes overturns the image of a thriving Omaha and touches on sensitive issues such as race. The truth hurts.
“We don’t want to ignore the fact we see poverty increasing in our community,” Boyd said. “Even if you control for socio-economic status factors there are other points of disparity. If you want to take in the full conversation you have to own that issues of race do present real challenges. Structural issues that have led to poverty or disparity for segments of the African-American, African, Latino-Hispanic communities.
“We have to work to get underneath these issues as a community overall. There is no simple solution. There is no one factor driving this. That’s why we embarked on this so long ago. It just so happens other organizations and communities have been working on these issues and are starting to surface some of the harder conversations. There’s real merit in these discussions.”
Building on each other
Boyd said The Landscape’s efforts are not meant to compete but rather complement work others do in addressing such matters.
“This isn’t meant to take the place of these amazing things that have already been put in motion. If anything, what we’re trying to do is further reinforce some great work already happening and that we’ve tied together in the Landscape. If we can coalesce with these, add additional momentum to where there’s already momentum and continue to bolster progress in others, then we’re all going to benefit as a result.
“Lots of things have been put in motion and this is a piece of a broader puzzle.”
She said The Landscape is poised to aggregate and extend data others gather to reach new audiences and share more information than otherwise possible..
“We may be able to help amplify the voice of groups and their priorities to potentially different constituencies and find areas we can drive at together and row in the same direction on.”
The hope is that the Landscape serves as a catalyst for Omaha’s giving community to take action.
“We’ve got such generosity, will, ambition and competitive spirit that when we look at how we fare versus other communities, we hope it does get underneath somebody’s skin for donors to say, ‘That’s not right, we can be better,’ and we get after that.”
Getting involved
The Landscape invites people to be a part of the change by getting involved, whether serving on a board, working with their neighborhood association, participating in community forums, running for elected office, voting, donating, volunteering.
“There are opportunities at various levels to consider what you bring to the table individually that can help play a role in driving the change and that’s different for different people. We do work with donors and so investment in some of these areas is certainly a possibility. But investment alone isn’t going to accomplish it either.
“We’re also cultivating a group of people who have agreed to be community listeners. These are individuals already engaged in the community who are interested in this journey we’re on with The Landscape. They’ve made a commitment to make decisions in how they engage with the community going forward based upon what they learn through the project.”
Community listeners are among the change agents The Landscape aims to activate.
“They’ve all said, ‘I’m in, I’m interested enough in where this is headed that I’ll refine or change or add thinking to my own community engagement.’ That could include philanthropic investment, business practices, policy work, leadership, creating connections with social capital. There’s any number of things it could influence. What we want is for community listeners to find where they feel personally they can take the most out of the project in terms of their own activation on these issues. It’s going to be different for different community members and what they care about and where they want to place their time and energy.”
_ _ _
FROM THE LANDSCAPE WEBSITE:
Shonna’s Story
Throughout her childhood, Shonna overcame numerous challenges to become a successful tech entrepreneur and educator. With such a great career and shelf full of leadership awards, she never expected domestic assault would cross her path.
Shonna Dorsey’s parents divorced when she was young leaving her mother a single parent. Her parents both had a good education and worked hard, but they were under-resourced. Growing up, Shonna wasn’t certain about college, but she changed her mind while at Omaha North High School. Through hard work and strong support from her teachers and guidance counselor, Shonna got into UNO on a full ride scholarship. There she earned a master’s degree in Management Information Systems before going on to co-found and lead Interface Web School in 2014. By 2015, Shonna and her team had graduated several classes of Interface students.
Johnetta’s Story
Johnetta is a single parent who balances a lot. She relies on public transit to get to work, college, and anywhere she needs to go. She has also struggled to find employment, due to a shoplifting charge that has followed her since age 18.
Johnetta Hudson has lived in Omaha her whole life. She faced many challenges throughout her childhood; she was in foster care since age five and both her parents had died by the time she was 15 years old. During her time in foster care, Johnetta chose to take advantage of a number of services and relationships that were available to her within the community. That support made a huge difference in her life. She’s now studying psychology and has a passion for helping others who have gone through what she did as a child.
Edwina’s Story
Welcoming others, sharing information, and stepping up to ask for change. Edwina’s work has helped to create a significant impact on her very own street.
Edwina Sheppard’s beloved neighborhood had slowly deteriorated over the years; vacant lots, burned out houses, condemned properties, and dangerous living conditions surrounded her home on all sides. As a homeowner who has been living in the same house within the Kountze Park/King Science Center neighborhood for 40 years, she was motivated to be a part of the solution.
Geo’s Story
In a matter of several months, Geo lost his business and home and found himself living in a friend’s shed. With a spirit of resiliency and hope, Geo shares how income loss and homelessness can affect a person’s physical, mental, and spiritual health.
George “Geo” LaPole, owned an antique business in South Omaha, and when he lost his business, he lost everything. Struggling with depression and other health concerns, he was forced to make some difficult decisions. Should he spend what little money he had on his hospital bills, monthly medications, healthy food, or a place to live? The choices were difficult ones and only exacerbated the issues he was already dealing with.
Karen’s Story
Karen is a breast cancer survivor who tells her story about how state and federal health programs helped to catch and treat the cancer at an early stage.
After moving to Omaha, Karen was out of work and lacking healthcare coverage. She was used to visiting her healthcare provider every year, but missed an annual exam because she was no longer employed and couldn’t afford to pay out of pocket..
Candy’s Story
Candy was a single mom, worried about her kids who were suffering from headaches, dizziness, and nosebleeds. She soon found out their apartment was the problem: it had toxic levels of lead and black mold.
Candy Hicks has four children living with her and has struggled to find affordable and safe housing for her family. Living on a fixed income means that every month she has to make difficult decisions about food, clothing, transportation, diapers, and rent. After moving around from one poorly maintained apartment to the next, Candy was happy to have found a place where she settled her family for five years.
Lisa’s Story
Lisa is an educator who grew up in poverty and was unable to read until the fourth grade. Now, she’s making a difference for students who experience the same challenges that she has overcome.
Prior to becoming the Executive Director of Elementary School Support and Supervision of the Omaha Public Schools (OPS), Lisa Utterback was the principal of Miller Park Elementary School. But before that, she grew up in a home environment of drugs, poverty, and neglect.
_ _ _
Going with the flow
The Landscape’s designed to be adaptive and to reflect new facts and best practices as they emerge.
“So much of this project has not been linear. It’s been anything but a straight line,” said Boyd, “and we recognize it’s not going to be a straight line path from here to there.”
With dozens of knowledge and nonprofit partners, combined with so many moving parts – meetings, forums, studies – covering such a broad swatch of the community, she said it’s little wonder the project has been “in process for a long time.” She added, “We wanted to be really diligent with this. In order to do this as thoughtfully as we intend to it really requires a lot of conversations with lots of different people and organizations and understanding their priorities and the work they already have ongoing and where there’s alignment and how we can come together.
“Within that framework we have the flexibility and thinking to say some opportunities may appear along the way we want to be open to.”
Getting to this point has been an education.
“I’ve learned so much on this journey and I know I’m not done in my own personal learning. My colleagues would say the same. Members of our board of directors and others we’re talking with feel that way, too. I think a big part of this project is learning together where we are to have a shared understanding. If we can come together with a shared understanding of an issue, then it’s a jumping off point to work on it.”
Data defines the project but an improved Omaha, not an archive, is the end goal.
“We’re going to stay connected to the data on this project. so three to five years from now we’ll want to see how things are going. But we’re not agnostic, we want to see change in the right direction on these indicators. We very much care these things move in the right direction. When we think about our own strategy and the work of the Omaha Community Foundation, we’re going to continue to be thoughtful about the piece of the puzzle we can be in trying to help affect that.
“We also want to be mindful about where the information goes and how it potentially helps our public servants in the decision-making process at the local and state level.”
Putting a human voice-face to the data
Programs and policies are often shaped by individuals’ personal stories. The men and women profiled on The Landscape website offer intimate stories that have the power to influence and inspire change.
“The storytelling is so important to this project,” Boyd said. “The storytelling really gives life and depth and perspective to this data. There’s making the data accessible and then giving the data meaning. That’s going to be an important part of our work going forward.
“We’re trying to help the community and the people who live here make progress together. We’re trying to set a stage for us to work together.”
In The Landscape, everyone has a story, everyone has a say.
Visit http://www.thelandscapeomaha.org.
Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at leoadambiga.com.
“We’re not interested in collecting information for information’s sake. We care about what we can act upon and what we can really do to potentially drive results.”
“Generally, I think we regard the quality of life and cost of living here as being very affordable but when you actually look at what it costs to raise a family and have a home in our community compared with wages earned, it is affordable for some of us, but not for all of us.”
“It takes the community to really wrap around some of these issues to see if we can do better in certain areas. That’s part of the driving force behind this project.”
“We may be able to help amplify the voice of groups and their priorities to potentially different constituencies and find areas we can drive at together and row in the same direction on.”
“We very much care these things move in the right direction. When we think about our own strategy and the work of the Omaha Community Foundation, we’re going to continue to be thoughtful about the piece of the puzzle we can be in trying to help affect that.”
“We’re trying to help the community and the people who live here make progress together. We’re trying to set a stage for us to work together.”
(Quotes by Sara Boyd)
Mini-Profile
Leo Adam Biga's My Inside Stories 