Interweaving for Deeper Impact

Strategic Priority 1: Deepen the impact of UNP-supported partnerships through a stronger interweaving of west side neighborhoods, the University of Utah, and influential institutions around shared questions, priorities, and successful models.

Depth and Sustainability: Identify partnerships and strategies that are effective and have momentum. Focus on deepening that work and creating structures to support partnership sustainability.

Partnership Capacity: Support partners and partnerships in building their capacity to take on roles related to convening, goal setting, assessment, and evaluation.

Horizontal & Vertical Integration: Increase communication, resource sharing, and collaboration horizontally—across partnerships, sectors of the community, and stakeholders—and vertically, across levels of decision-making.

Knowledge Building: Deepen our shared knowledge base through community-engaged research focused on the work and priorities of partnerships.

Key Indicator: # of active, collaborative connections within and across partnerships.

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New WLI Pathways 

By: Lana Lichfield & Kalei Tuitupou

While coupling rich diversity with community action, UNP has created a network of support from various partnerships all around Salt Lake City. The depth and strength of all these partnerships is vital to the sustainability of the programs they offer on the west side. The Westside Leadership Institute (WLI), which is a resident leadership program, is a collaboration with NeighborWorks Salt Lake, the Salt Lake City School District, and multiple departments at the University of Utah (City and Metropolitan Planning, Social Work, Gender Studies, Public Affairs, and Political Science). For over 15 years, WLI has empowered more than 500 residents on the west side of Salt Lake City to take the lead in affecting positive change in their neighborhoods. To meet the needs and diversity of Salt Lake, WLI has developed leadership courses in English and Spanish, and is now in the process of developing classes in Samoan. WLI is pleased to share their collaborative efforts to make leadership classes accessible and available to all our community members.

To tap into the unlimited potential of the Latinx community on the west side, WLI has developed a culturally responsive leadership class in Spanish. The class has been offered for the past four years. It is geared towards meeting the language and cultural needs of its students while maintaining unity with its English class counterpart. A common phrase in Spanish is, “se hace el camino al andar” (“The path is made by walking it”). The class truly helps students make the path by walking as students are given the tools to create and implement a group or individual project to better their community. As the participants create the path by walking, the path forward becomes clearer. One graduate of WLI shared that, “This experience has helped me realize that I am able to continue my studies and improve my life.” WLI is designed to empower participants to address community issues, which open doors to new opportunities and pave the way for others to follow. Developing WLI-Spanish has paved the way for the up-and-coming development of WLI-Samoan.

Working with the Sāmoana Integrated Language Initiative (S.A.I.L.I.), UNP has been able to provide community based language classes for Pacific Islander communities on the west side. Taught every Tuesday night by Marilyn Figel-Griffin (known lovingly as Auntie Kuki) these classes provide opportunities for anyone to learn the Samoan language. However, it has a special focus on those Samoans living in the diaspora to connect back to their cultural roots and teach their children, many whose first language is English and have never set foot on the home islands. So’o le fau ma le fau (in working together we can accomplish great things) seems to be echoed as WLI- Samoan is being created. The excitement from every generation in Auntie Kuki’s class fuels motivation to remember the Samoan culture and apply it to our modern lives. As mentioned in the proverb above, NeighborWorks Salt Lake, UNP, and WLI are continuing to open doors for underrepresented groups to help them develop their ideas and action plans for the west side. As a collective, Salt Lake City will be able to experience change at a very personal level for all of these residents.

UNP’s Samoan language classes help to preserve community member’s cultural heritage, while WLI’s bi-lingual leadership classes are designed to meet the community’s unique cultural needs. The partnerships of UNP and the WLI are working to build strong foundational pathways that will foster a strong connection of leadership and culture. Stay tuned as the Westside Leadership Institute and its partners unveil further pathways to make a difference in our community.

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The Westside Coalition & a Shifting West Side Narrative

By: Elizabeth Arnold

The Westside Coalition is a social welfare organization that advocates for residents living on the west side of Salt Lake City. The Coalition fights for health, safety, and quality of life for its residents. Comprised of six community councils, the Westside Coalition includes; Westpointe, Jordan Meadows, Rose Park, Poplar Grove, Glendale, and Fairpark. The Coalition was newly reinstated as of September 2018 with the vision of creating one united voice among the community councils after significant efforts with the Public Market at the State Fairpark. While the Public Market was the impetus and springboard for the reinstatement of the Coalition, the organization has gone on to deal with a broad array of issues.

One of the central efforts of the Coalition is to increase their reach and visibility throughout the community. They are focused on engaging west side residents with issues that directly affect them and their lives. Too often elected officials and individuals in positions of leadership make decisions for entire communities without seeking the input of the people living within their boundaries. This has occurred time and time again with the west side of Salt Lake City. The Coalition is working to change this narrative by engaging residents civically in their communities and becoming active voters in the elections of public officials that have direct influences on their neighborhood.

In combination with this effort, the Coalition is issue-driven and focuses on the most immediate projects that could impact west side residents. They are proactive in finding and identifying projects that are impactful and do not just wait for things to come along. This helps to deter the continued industrialization of the west side. They work to obtain media coverage so that community members can be aware of potential projects that could impact their neighborhoods. The Public Market is an example of the Westside Coalition fighting for economic justice so that residents are given the same opportunities as their neighbors to the east.

In May 2019, a report was compiled that outlined and identified a number of different organizations located on the west side with whom the Coalition could work. This information can be used as a tool for partnership. The Coalition will determine areas in which it needs improvement and partner with organizations with assets in those areas. It is our hope that the Westside Coalition and local organizations will be seen as a resource toolkit for residents to use to accomplish neighborhood-identified goals, changes, and improvements.

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Building Deeper Knowledge Systems

By: Cori Groth, Abdulkhaliq Barbaar, Jennifer Mayer-Glenn, and Matthew Pecsok

In 2018, UNP took stock of its work over the previous 15 years by celebrating partner and partnership accomplishments. UNP also looked ahead to the future by engaging west side residents and university stakeholders in the creation of a new long-range strategic plan. In the midst of it all, UNP also recognized the need to update evaluation systems in order to engage in continuous inquiry and improvement to fulfill its mission of adapting and evolving to meet community and university priorities, demonstrating impact, and responding to needs.

As a result, UNP reached out to the Utah Education Policy Center (UEPC) at the University of Utah to partner in developing a comprehensive evaluation system that could support the implementation of the UNP Long-Range Plan (see page 3) and provide ongoing information for UNP to engage in continuous inquiry and improvement in telling the story of its impact over time.

Consistent with UNP’s mission, this partnership combines strengths and expertise to enhance the complex work of university-community engagement, as well as providing evidence and insight into one of the University of Utah’s strategic goals of engaging communities to enhance health and quality of life.

As an independent, non-partisan research center, the UEPC is part of the U of U’s College of Education. It bridges research, policy, and practice for Utah public schools and higher education. This partnership is an opportunity to expand its mission to bridge research, policy, and practice and to increase educational equity, excellence, access, and opportunities. The effort to collect, manage, and organize data on UNP activities, partnerships, outcomes, and impact can be used for ongoing partnership development, leveraging resources, and partnership improvement and planning. The UEPC brings to the table expertise in evaluation and data management, with background in evaluating programs and strategies similar to UNP’s.

The process for revitalizing the evaluation system began with a review of UNP’s existing Theory of Change model, as well as goals, indicators, and databases to determine the strengths of the previous system and identified needs for data collection and reporting in the future. We collaborated on developing a new logic model that identifies the inputs, strategies, short- and medium-term outcomes, and long-term impacts for each of UNP’s impact areas.

Developing the logic model was an intensive process, taking place over several months that required in-depth collaboration with the UNP staff. The outcome is a framework and roadmap for developing a comprehensive evaluation system that will increase UNP’s capacity for ongoing learning and improvement to help implement its long-range strategic plan.

Once the logic model was completed, the UEPC facilitated the second stage of evaluation system development by incorporating the strengths of the previous data collection system and considering long-term needs, then creating a new system that will be used to collect, analyze, and report on the indicators and outcomes outlined in Logic Model. The UEPC has designed a solution that leverages the resources of UNP, while utilizing a slightly more complex information technology solution.

Now that we are in the final stretch, UNP and the UEPC are collaborating to compile an annual evaluation report based on the new logic model and strategic long-range plan. Similar to previous years, an annual report will present the evidence gathered throughout the year regarding how UNP convenes partners and supports community-engaged initiatives, as well as highlight the outcomes and important work of engaging communities to enhance health and quality of life.

We are excited about the opportunities the new evaluation system will offer UNP and invite you to join us on this learning journey!

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UNP Logic Model with Indicators 

UNP Logic Model with Indicators (excerpt)