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BEST ADVISORY PURPOSE

The BEST Advisory Committee brings together leaders across the BEST network and larger community to ensure ongoing effectiveness and governance of BEST in reaching its collective vision and goals. BEST Advisory members provide meaningful feedback on key decisions, make recommendations and share decision-making authority with the GKFF-BEST team.
Rooted in racial equity, the committee provides oversight, gauges progress, evaluates the initiative, identifies opportunities, surfaces gaps and problem solve in ways that reflect the complexities of BEST and leverage the expertise and commitment of a wide range of partners and stakeholders.

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2020-21 BEST ADVISORY MEMBERS

From Left to Right: Pastor Robert Turner (Vernon AME Church), LaBrisa Williams (Tulsa Birth Equity Initiative), Carlisha Williams Bradley (ImpactTulsa)

Not Pictured: Cassandra Love, Tulsa Housing Authority

Kelly Kane, Tulsa Public School

Priscilla Haynes, Tulsa Health Dept

Maria Elena Kuykendall, Power of Families

Annie Koppel Van Hanken, GKFF

Ashley Philippsen, ImpactTulsa

Krystal Reyes,

City of Tulsa

Greg Robinson, Met Cares Foundation

Aisha McWeay, Still She Rises Tulsa

Maria Palacios, Tulsa Early Learning Works by Tulsa Educare

Dr. Syeachia Dennis, OU Tulsa

Hollie Hawkins, HealthySteps

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EVOLUTION OF BEST ADVISORY

FALL 2017 - SPRING 2018

Planning and development of the advisory committee

WINTER 2019

Increased focus on understanding perspective of parents and caregivers with community liaison additions

Advisory meetings and addition of members aligned to developments in BEST including a focus on advancing equity

SUMMER - FALL 2019

Launch of Advisory with initial membership and focus on building vision, core values together

SPRING 2019 - SPRING 2020

SPRING 2020

Shift to rethinking structures and composition with a goal to share decision making authority with those most directly experiencing barriers of poverty, racism and injustice

FALL 2020 - PRESENT

Advisory selected two top-line priorities for the year (see future slides) and engage in ongoing meetings.

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OUR PROGRESS

24%

In October, BEST Advisory held a retreat where the committee identified two top-line priorities (see slide 5), solidified sub-committees (see slide 6) and developed a Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis.
Since then, BEST Advisory has served a critical role in providing guidance and input to related to the 2020-21 budget, identified gaps and emerging community needs to inform decisions about BEST’s investment and partner supports strategy and launched the sub-committee structure.

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2020-21 BEST ADVISORY PRIORITIES

A multi-year plan to advance racial equity throughout BEST has been launched.
Community authority has been strengthened throughout BEST by further developing structures to strengthen shared decision-making and incorporate input from clients and program staff into ongoing programmatic and systemic improvements.

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OUR STRUCTURE

Advisory is composed of up to 20 committee members at any given time. Meetings are held bi-monthly.
A committee member will either be a representative from one of the three categories: standing member, rotating partner and ad hoc members.

Standing Members Term limit: Indefinite	Rotating Partners Term limit: 2 years	Ad hoc Members Term limit: N/A
Individual is a representative of the following organizations: ImpactTulsa Tulsa Health Department Tulsa Housing Authority Tulsa Public Schools City of Tulsa GKFF Community liaisons	Individual is a representative of one of the following: Implementing Partners (4-5 members) Community leaders	Individual is a subject matter expert including BEST implementing partners not currently serving as members who bring expertise; research and evaluation experts.

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OUR STRUCTURE

Main Committee

See slide 3 for full membership

In addition to the Main BEST Advisory Committee, this year, we have added four subcommittees to advance BEST Advisory’s priorities (see slide 2).
These sub-committees will function as active working groups that will co-create recommendations and make decisions alongside the GKFF-BEST team.
Membership will include BEST Advisory members, GKFF-BEST staff and community leaders/staff.

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SUB-COMMITTEES

Main Committee

See slide 2 for full membership.

Policy

Focus on Medicaid expansion and enrollment, surfacing policy barriers and advancing and refining BEST policy priorities.

Partner Pipeline

Focus on making recommendations involving new partner pipelines including all stages, from identification of service gaps to onboarding.

Partner Strengthening

Focus on organizational capacity, including identifying additional supports i.e. DEI for BEST partners.

Data

Focus on identifying ways to use data and technology to support advisory goals and activities.

If you are interested in learning more about the sub-committees,

check out this high-level summary of initial meetings.

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SUB-COMMITTEES MEMBERS