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<strong>Siouxland</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Inspire /24<br />
Erica DeLeon with Source for <strong>Siouxland</strong> speaks at a recent community gathering.<br />
The Tale of Two Organizations<br />
By Dr. Cyndi Hanson<br />
What makes a strong community? Economic<br />
stability? Educational systems? Accessible Healthcare?<br />
Low crime rates? Quality of life initiatives? I’m guessing<br />
one (or more) of these five traits is something important to<br />
you. According to the Source for <strong>Siouxland</strong> and Growing<br />
Community Connections, these are the five areas where<br />
focused improvement will produce a positive impact.<br />
The Five Focus Groups are: Economic Stability,<br />
Education, Health, Safety and Quality of Life.<br />
Growing Community Connections (GCC) and Source for<br />
<strong>Siouxland</strong> work together and the work is very interwoven.<br />
GCC is the communication arm and Source for <strong>Siouxland</strong><br />
is the data arm. Data needs to be communicated and<br />
focused goals need data. It is a wonderful match, led by<br />
Erica DeLeon and JoAnn Gieselman.<br />
The two entities engage in work referred to as “collective<br />
impact”. Collective impact is the notion that working<br />
together we are stronger than working independently.<br />
For a region that has a plethora of small non-profit<br />
organizations, the strength of collective impact is<br />
immense. Evidence of that impact is noticed when data<br />
is used to set goals and measure progress toward them.<br />
Source for <strong>Siouxland</strong> was born out of Comprehensive<br />
Strategy, an effort to collect data on positive youth<br />
development. Over time, the focus of data gathering<br />
has expanded; largely because youth development is<br />
related to so much more – economic factors, food security,<br />
employment, etc. Each year the organization put together<br />
and published a data book that compiled all the data one<br />
might need for grant writing, program development, and<br />
so on.<br />
Growing Community Connections grew out of a desire<br />
to bring people serving organizations together in a way<br />
that encouraged communication and collaboration. The<br />
group meets monthly and before the pandemic, was nearly<br />
outgrowing the meeting space. Since March of 2020, the<br />
group has used Zoom and Facebook Live to involve 100-<br />
150 partners in the discussion.<br />
The Growing Community Connections group has continued<br />
to meet via Facebook Live and Zoom monthly.
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