FSLN Network Activation Coffee Chat: Fostering Alignment within Networks

May 19, 2021

3 - 4:30pm EST

Use the chat box to introduce yourself and check-in!

​

Check-in prompt: what song is bringing you inspiration or motivation these days?

The Food Systems Leadership Network

Peer learning community of people and organizations from across the country working to advance the realization of a just, equitable, and sustainable food system that generates good food, health, and opportunity for all.

​

​

​

​

​

Network Announcements

• LAMP Grant Support: communications and outreach campaign and technical assistance support for RFSP grantees
• Organizational Change for Racial Justice Work training: applications close tomorrow, May 20!

• Facilitate peer learning opportunities,
• Offer capacity building trainings,
• Support member collaborations,
• Strengthen individual and collective change capacity,
• Amplify innovative programming and people

Network Activation Series

Space to learn with and from peers about strategies and best practices for dealing with some of the common challenges of building and sustaining impactful networks

​

Past calls have explored:

• The why and how of building and sustaining networks
• Trust as the foundation to impactful networks

Today:

• Fostering alignment within networks
• Through workshop-style approach, adapting a “peer coaching” model
• Opportunity for deep listening, offering your own experiences - not here to jump to solutions!

Best practices for peer coaching workshops

• Step up, step back
• Practice kindness and humility
• Draw wisdom from your experiences (use “I” statements, resist the urge to give advice)
• Honor vulnerability and brave spaces
• Maintain confidentiality

Group 1 Moving a Community Food Assessment into an Action Plan (Ali Jensen)

Group 1 Notes

General Reflections from Participants

• Curious about trust building efforts - who did the interviews? Who knew about this? (between interviewees and interviewers)
• Heard you have a hard time w/ getting people to do interviews. (ex. Tribal fisherpeople)
• Learning how to have disagreements, and ability to sit with disagreement and arguments. Need to learn to argue with each other
• Feeligns of confusion - what was hte mandate you were set out with? Who gave it to you? What’s the incentive for people to participate? iF there’s no trust or value, some groups wont’ wnat to participate
• Is this for the council? For the community?
• Who is mandated to take actions and implement them?
• Feelings of solidarity - growth stage and making a plan is daunting
• Veto vote? Putting a proposal - is there anything you cannot, in good conscious support, present and why?
• Roles of committee members (DARCI framework per project)
• What is the confusion around next steps?
• Missing stakeholders -- what has been done to incorporate voices?
• Is the framework still serving the need of the CFA?
• Idea to come up with 3 strategies - able to uplift what is really important, then develop imperatives to support strategies, need to also assign responsibility for implementation

Comments from Case Giver

• Group that really wanted it is in transition. Support from council is there, but less urgent
• The committee still finds value in the process - outcome is to address the fissures in food system
• Lot of issues exacerbated by COVID, trying to acknowledge that we missed an opp to not have that happen again and support comm again
• Trust building: didn’t do a lot to build trust amongst 9 members, there wasn’t much resistance to interviews. Community is divided between small/medium sized fishermen that are employing indigenous practices but there is a feeling that the ideas were appropriated
• Haven’t done a good job of reaching out to indigenous fisherpeople
• Key person on committee who held a lot of relationships left -- how can we continue to build relationships w/ her contacts?
• Disagreements in community have been going on for SO long … how to approach it hwen I’ve been in the community for only 3 years? Daunting.
• Putting in a process around disagreement
• County committe meeting - 0-5, other forms of decision making
• Daunting next steps: committee members dont’ have time to do anything except attend meetings; don’t get a lot of directives from them; doesn’t have a vote on committee -- uncomfortable driving agenda nad having ocmmittee disagree. Approach is to drive the agenda! THese folks don’t have time. How do I make sure I represent them well on their behalf?
• Loss of momentum. Goal is teh same, but getting to it

Group 1 Notes - Cont.

Generative Dialogue

• Have you encountered something similar in your own work? How did you approach it?
• Is there another way of looking at this challenge?
• Mandate and interest level --- idea to go back to group and see what they’re looking for? What does the group want? Might help with feeling responsible.
• Interviews didn’t take a racial equity lens ; would liek to employ an equity lens before making policy
• YOur role is like a facilitator - trying ot maintain neutrality and have them create hte decision
• I wnat to be a facilitator and help bring them along with the decision
• How do I do that in a group that doesn’t have time to do all hte work?
• You can be the admin support -- this could help you find clarity in your role -- do all the work but bring decisions to them
• Spend time: what do you think would work best for this?
• Imposter syndrome, working for govt - supposed to be neutral - but who are we supposed to be representing? Is it hte historically represented people or the historically underrepresented people? Having the learning coem from the govt feels weird
• Wants to make recommendations but feelign stymied by position
• Have a wide view, see the whole -- this is helpful to guide everything. You’ll be impacted by committee
• Have to believe in the thigns I’m doing, how much decision making capability can i gfive to others? When I’m the only one who has this as their day job when others have htis as a byproduct
• Power dynamics

Wrap up (What new insights do these reflections, experiences, solutions offer?)

• Defining rolesl within framework, useful to understand my role vs committe members role. Important to define this now, before moving forward with a plan. Needs to be reasonable;
• How do we vote on this -- aim for 3 strategies, have a process for voting (what can I live with ior not) employing these before hte process, before starting
• ​

Group 2 Building and Maintaining Member-led Networks (Lotus Chaney)

Group 2 Notes

General Reflections from Participants

• What feelings did this bring up for you? What burning questions came up for you?
• Meeting people where they are; capacity among members is limited - want to foster capacity and accountability to create member leadership for the long term. Seeking ways members can engage; trying a lot to see what sticks and what works
• Do members know what it means to be a member? Has that been defined: Are there different types of members? What benefit does membership provide them?
• Great to try out options to meet people where they are. Curious about % of membership engaged in these activities - in listserv; discussions, etc.
• Always have more people engaged than others - want to dig in more about the characteristics of the type of folks that are more engaged, and why they might be so - from there might be able to get more learning
• The challenges presented are shared by all networks - always trying to figure out how to get busy people engaged; folks who are already at capacity/full-time
• Communications? How and how often do you communicate with members?
• What sort of scheduling are you using or what are people about to commit to in your scheduling app?
• ​
• ​

​

Comments from Case Giver

• Questions about member identity - wasn’t a clear definition of that with members. Member orientation next month could be a place for exploring this. What are the benefits? What does it mean to be involved?
• Questions about engagement and who is more/less involved - don’t have an empirical way of determining this.
• Have taken time to talk one on one with members - to inform their work - the question around identity - why did they join? How has it changed?

​

Group 2 Notes - Cont.

Generative Dialogue

• Have you encountered something similar in your own work? How did you approach it?
• Is there another way of looking at this challenge?
• Here’s what we’re bringing to the table, here’s what an ideal world looks like for us - clear communication; clear asks. Why did they get involved?
• Storytelling - share impact stories, how our mission is being impacted by the work we’re doing, ignites others to engage
• Bi-annual newsletter that highlights stories of those involved in the network; highlight on IG; making sure members get a sticker or something that reaffirms their self-identification as a member. Psychologically helps people stay engaged.
• A badge or logo they can add to their website or social media.
• One on one member conversations - could that be a buddy system - pair someone who is more engaged with someone who is less engaged as a mentor in the program
• School Gardens Support Network - similar strategic planning process & member identify questions -- as part of the process have done interviews, focus groups, survey to understand what folks want and how they want to be engaged.
• How did they get involved? Been involved in food systems work - wearing many different hats - committed to participatory learning & incorporating learning into everything; how to empower yourself in a variety of ways, doesn’t have to be eating OG/shopping at farmers market; food rescue new to Lotus, wanted to learn more. Sachin comes from education background; “Be the Change” initiative - learned about the serious impacts on communities - thinking about environmental education. Winged it! Taught kids to grow food; had to create everything themself.
• This grit - shared experience - is something that most network members also share. Leverage this shared experience.
• When folks feel empowered they want to do something and be more involved - is there a way to channel this with members to take up leadership roles.
• Many skills that are transferable to other challenges - connect with people -- this is a skill that can be learned. What made you good at it? How might they share that with their members?
• What structures do they envision? More equitable employment models. Member workshops are working - sent out calendar; members can sign up to present. Also have newsletter - members can contribute resources, suggestions, etc.
• One on one calls seem to be working - can be difficult to get to a google drive spreadsheet - maybe regular phone calls can be a way of drawing out resources. Text chains can work.
• Listserv & member meetings, Slack, etc. - trying to figure out best communication methods. Regular phone calls and texts could be helpful.
• Using Miro for strategic planning - core staff only right now. Been working on it with the folks that have been involved for a long time.
• Keep reinventing the wheel each time - network has been through multiple iterations - this is the first time that it has paid staff to lead member engagement
• What’s surfacing from the one on one’s?
• You mentioned that a ideal member led-network means there’s no need for your job. What does that landscape look like before the need for your job goes away? Now that you have that image, how do you work toward making that happen?

Wrap up (What new insights do these reflections, experiences, solutions offer?)

• Do more fact-finding from members - have more targeted conversations - think about engagement, where do you want to see FA go? What does more engagement mean? Be intentional about defining this.
• Reduce staff time commitment slowly over time.
• Clearly define what it means to be a member. Provide chances for members to share in the newsletter. Provide tangible way for folks to share. Social media badge

Group 3 Food Policy Councils as Conduit for Funding (Sam Applefield)

Group 3 Notes

General Reflections from Participants

• What feelings did this bring up for you? What burning questions came up for you?
• I am grappling with this same question right now - especially considering USDA Grant
• Orgs with professional grant writer - thinking about how to use that capacity and role

Questions:

• Does PFPC have experience channeling money to BIPOC led organizations?
• What was the process of strategically planning your approach? Do you have a strategic plan for tackling these questions?
• What has worked in the past of making big decisions, considering the council moved from all volunteers
• The word should is standing out? What about framing of how WOULD being a funding conduit fit into your strategy? Is it deeply aligned with your goals and strategies?
• We also have to think about COULD? What have these organizations said about their lack of capacity? What are needs for capacity building and is that something that the PFPC can take on? What are the specific needs?
• Are you able to poll members to see if they are reflective of the people they are trying to serve?

Comments from Case Giver

• PFPC has spent several years developing the Pittsburgh Food Action Plan - analyzing the state of the food system and 150 strategies for addressing the challenge uncovered. Then prioritized key strategies for the next five years. One priority: Identify and procure funding for food systems in the region. Gives a clear directive.
• Members have reached out before asking for helping writing a grant application… and that has led to a question of: is that something we should be doing and how would we maintain it going forward - could look like many different things: grant writing support to members; Philadelphia has a Food Justice Fund, supported by Philanthropy
• Doing more strategic planning this summer - which can help with strategy on this specific question
• Members range from large orgs to small, grassroots led organizations --- there is a divide there and a significant spectrum of need. There are many who would defer help with grant writing… and a number that do need it.

​

​

Group 3 Notes - Cont.

Generative Dialogue

• Have you encountered something similar in your own work? How did you approach it?
• Is there another way of looking at this challenge?
• In Florida - the Food Policy Council (non-profit but also governmental) is addressing similar questions. Working with 3-4 different non-profits to create a Community Health Hub. Partnering big groups with small groups on a specific issue. Which means in this partnership, if one group has an issue, a partner group might support. Being in a network - locally - or nationally - like the FSLN - helps broaden perspective as to common challenges and how to solve them.
• Through the PFPC there are many big members, that you could match with smaller, regional orgs

Shared gifting circle - with private philanthropy money - to share resources. But it is also about process! Process is a lot of what folks are looking for. Shared gifting / sharing resources can help better connect people to each other -- democratic decision making in terms of who gets the resources. This is a beautiful process that allows not just sharing resources but also knowledge. Helping those that want to apply to apply.

Equity in Network webinar talking about how a network org that was broadcasting a lot of information in the name of transparency, but found that was not meeting the needs of their members - putting a lot of information on a website, instead of a data dump. Creating a home for info. If someone came to a website that said: these are the available funding opportunities and we have capacity to do this many office hours. Matching PFPC capacity to needs. And be specific… we are offering these office hours for these specific orgs - targeted support.

Polling members - allows us to really understand what folks REALLY NEED

The power of asking: asking membership - especially higher capacity orgs to provide resources, support, time to organizations with less resources or capacity

Getting the grant isn’t the whole of it - a lot of organizations need help applying for grants - so we need to be asking ourselves “why am I applying for this grant and do I have capacity to administer if I get it. Many of us have been in organizations where we learn the hard way the amount of administration that goes with gettings grants - especially federal grants.

How can those learnings and tools for analyzing capacity be shared with other orgs?

Going to funders and having conversations about why are you asking what you asking or requiring what you are → Esp. since PFPC has unique access to funders

Wrap up (What new insights do these reflections, experiences, solutions offer?)

• Realizing that some in membership want PFPC to do / be everything - and PFPC needs to more carefully identify that role
• It felt like there were a lot of pathways before --- now it feels like there are even more.
• Matching capacity within networks - formalizing matching capacity to resources, skills and time
• When we are in person again - doing an ask and offer wall

​

Group harvest

• Case givers
• Group 1: Moving a Community Food Assessment into an Action Plan (Ali Jensen)
• Reflections back from the group around clarifying staff role vc volunteers’ roles
• Defining the framework before designing the plan
• Employing an equity lens from the start both in the process and in how to make decisions
• Group 2: Building and Maintaining Member-led Networks (Lotus Chaney)
• Determining baseline for member participation-- where are they now?
• Reducing staff time commitment over time via an alternative employment model through structures and systems that allow clear member involvement
• Clearly defining what it means to be a member through member orientation and making it clear that the goal of the network is peer learning and meeting members where they are and offering spaces for them to be involved
• Group 3:Food Policy Councils as Conduit for Funding (Sam Applefield)
• Can and should they serve as a conduit to get funding to small/BIPOC led orgs.
• There is a range of member needs in this area from awareness to grant writing so they need to drill down into specific needs and develop tools to address them
• What would meeting the spectrum of needs look like? Gifting circle? Formalized matching process between organizations in the network with different levels of fundraising capacity
• Participants