Introduction

Join Hands East St. Louis, Inc. is a small, community-based nonprofit founded in 1990 to serve children and families in East St. Louis, Illinois.

In November 2022, the Join Hands ESL Board, staff, and stakeholders began a new planning process to update the 2018 – 2021 plan. Facilitated by a volunteer with experience in strategic planning, the process included stakeholder meetings with volunteers, staff, teens, and parents. A planning committee of board members and staff guided the process. The Board held a day long strategic planning retreat in February 2023.

Much progress has been made towards achieving the goals in the last plan, but beginning in early 2020, the Covid pandemic seriously impacted service delivery. Join Hands provides direct services to children and adults using volunteers. So, the in-person restrictions imposed by the pandemic affected participation by the children and families served, as well as the ability to recruit, train and use volunteers.

Despite the impact of the pandemic, Join Hands made significant progress on many goals in the 2018 Plan.

Successes include:

1. Increased staff capacity to oversee and provide programming. Several positions have been added as discussed below, increasing capacity in all program areas.
2. Developed a written Volunteer Manual.
3. Improved program evaluation and outcome measures. Join Hands partnered with the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University to develop a “Logic model” for programs and outcomes.
4. Added new teen programming (the Peace Warrior program) and opened a Teen Center.
5. Conducted successful fundraising campaigns and special events.
6. Increased operating budget to over $700,000 by 2022.

Several goals are ongoing such as creating an operating reserve. Increasing the number of program participants and volunteers was temporarily set back by the pandemic but is back on track with the new staffing infrastructure in place.

Vision and Mission

After review and discussion by stakeholder groups, the Board adopted the following revised Vision and Mission statements:

Vision. Every child in greater East St. Louis knows their beauty and value and has a pathway to achieve their dreams and potential.

Mission. The mission of Join Hands ESL is to build personal relationships and walk in solidarity with children and families of greater East St. Louis as they strive to achieve their full potential and overcome barriers of poverty and racial injustice. We accomplish our mission through our youth programming, education advocacy, mentoring programs and the Ubuntu Center for Peace.

History

Girls and Boys Clubs. Join Hands initially focused on children in two East St. Louis housing projects. Using volunteers, Girls Club and Boys Club provided Saturday recreational outings for children from 8 to 13 years old.

The Family Mentoring Program. In 2004, Join Hands added the Family Mentoring Program, focusing on women and their children. All ten of the original mothers in the mentoring program had been participants in Girls Club when they were younger.

The Alternative Education Program and Education Advocacy. Working with the mothers, we identified quality education as critical to breaking the cycle of poverty. The public schools in East St. Louis have been failing for years. (According to the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, the percentage of students in East St. Louis School District 189 scoring at performance levels for English Language Arts was just 9% in 2022, with math scores at just 4%.) So, in 2006 Join Hands started the Alternative Education Program to send children of families in the Family Mentoring Program to private school. Join Hands also provides education advocacy services to all children and teens to ensure they receive the services needed to be successful in school.

The Teen Mentoring Program. In 2006, we started our Teen Mentoring Program to help teenagers attain their education and career goals. The program serves teenagers in the Family Mentoring Program and teens who have aged out of Girls Club and Boys Club. We also partner with an after-school program in East St. Louis to provide mentoring for their teen workers.

The Ubuntu Center for Peace. Until 2016, Join Hands had no office space. In early 2016, through a generous donation, Join Hands was able to lease space in the Orr Weathers public housing complex in East St. Louis, enabling Join Hands to open the Ubuntu Center for Peace, now home to all Join Hands programs.

The Dream Path Program. In 2017, with these successful programs in place and office space, we implemented the Dream Path Program: whole family mentoring to achieve children’s academic success. The Dream Path Program includes: Family Mentoring, Teen Mentoring, education advocacy, and alternative education.

Peace Warriors. In 2018, Join Hands teens went to Chicago for training in Kingian nonviolence. The Peace Warrior program teaches teens Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence as a way of life and a means of social change. This includes how to de-escalate violence in their schools and communities. In 2019, our teens were trained to teach Kingian nonviolence, and in 2022, we partnered with East St. Louis High School to imbed a Join Hands Peace Warrior coordinator at the high school.

Capacity Building. Until 2016, Join Hands was managed by volunteers, including long-time founding Executive Director, Sheila Burton. The Board successfully raised funds to begin building a staffed infrastructure to serve the increasing number of families, children, and volunteers. Sheila Burton became the full-time paid Executive Director, and a Director of Development came on board. In 2017, the education advocate’s hours were expanded, and another part-time position was added. The last strategic plan identified the need to increase staff salaries commensurate with other local non-profits and to increase staffing.

Since implementation of the last plan, successful fundraising has enabled Join Hands to put in place a staffing infrastructure designed to carry Join Hands into the future.

Leadership Transition. During 2021-22, Sheila Burton went on leave, but the transition to a new Executive Director was unsuccessful. With Ms. Burton’s return to the area in July 2022, the Board adopted an innovative leadership transition plan by creating the new Executive Director, Leadership Development Trainee (ED, LDT) position, with Sheila serving as the Managing Director to mentor and train the new ED, LDT.

This transition strategy has several goals: investing in younger leaders; identifying and mentoring leaders of color; and hiring leaders who better reflect the community served and who bring a full range of knowledge and new ideas to address community needs. With the promotion of Ja’Shira Savannah to the ED, LDT position, these goals are being met, as she “grew up” in Join Hands Dream Path programs, has successfully completed her bachelor’s degree, and is enrolled in a Masters program in nonprofit management.

The Board has an Executive Director Transition Committee to oversee the transition and to work with Sheila and Shira to develop, implement, and oversee transition milestones and a timetable (anticipated to be 12 – 24 months).

Current Programs

Currently, core programs of Join Hands include Youth Programming, the Dream Path Program, and the Ubuntu Center for Peace. All focus on relationships and journeying in solidarity with the people of Join Hands, opening doors of opportunity to overcome the many barriers poverty and structural racism have put in the way of our children reaching their full potential and their dreams.

Youth Programming currently consists of our Girls and Boys Clubs and Martial Arts classes. Other youth programming such as Cooking Class or High School Big Brothers/Big Sisters are offered as volunteer power allow. Our main core youth programming is our Girls and Boys Clubs, where children are assigned to “houses”, small groups where relationships with volunteers can begin and grow. Twice monthly recreational outings are scheduled year-round, outings just for fun to foster relationships such as bowling, movies, the science or ball games, to name a few.

The Dream Path Program consists of our Family Mentoring Program (including GEMS, our new initiative with young moms), our Teen Mentoring Program (including our Teen Center), our Education Advocacy Program (including Alternative Education). In summer 2023, we will be adding a Middle School Mentoring Program to our Dream Path, to address a very real need to engage our middle schoolers, to connect our young people with individualized mentoring and age-appropriate programming.

The Ubuntu Center for Peace is an oasis amid an often-violent neighborhood of East St. Louis. It is a place of welcome and hospitality, where coffee is on every morning and where resources are available. Solidarity with the people of Join Hands in the spirit of ubuntu are embodied in our Kingian Nonviolence Education programs (both teen Peace Warriors and adult Kingian Nonviolence Education programs (both teen Peace Warriors and adult Kingian Nonviolence courses) as well as in the Justice and Equity Advocacy Works that we want to begin in 2023.

Future Plans

A strong, new staffing infrastructure is in place for delivery of services; including the new Executive Director, LDT, a full time Program Director (January 2023), the Dream Path Teen Program Manager, and a full-time Director of the Ubuntu Center for Peace. The experienced Director of Development, a Development Associate, and the part-time Finance Director round out the administrative staff.

At the Board retreat, board members identified several issues associated with the executive director transition. Sheila Burton, as the founding director, oversaw the successful expansion of Join Hands for over 30 years and is highly identified with the organization by donors and community partners. She and her husband, Mike Burton, personally know most of the volunteers. The key issues of financial sustainability and recruitment of volunteers are addressed in the goals and strategies set out below.

Goals and Strategies

Strategy screen. At its retreat, the Board set criteria for all strategies. They must: support the mission and values of Join Hands; meet specified financial criteria (is it financially viable?); enhance Join Hand’s competitive advantage, and; support Join Hands in moving to the next stage of development.

Organizational Strategies

Goal: Ensure the long-term ability of Join Hands to carry out its mission.

Objectives:

• Successfully transition to the new leadership team
• Secure Join Hands’ long-term financial stability
• Ensure staff are effective in living out the mission

Strategies:

1. Identify ways the Board can support the new Executive Director and Director of Programs to ensure their success, such as securing necessary training, technical assistance, and introductions to funders and donors
2. Promote the Catalyst for Change capacity building fundraising campaign, with particular focus on major gifts, increasing level of giving of current donors, and adding new annual donors
3. Develop a specific plan to set aside a portion of unrestricted funds each year to build reserves to 25% of operating expenses within 3 to 5 years
4. Ensure staff continue to be mission-driven

Programmatic Strategies

Goal: Increase Join Hands’ programmatic impact.

Objectives:

• Increase volunteer recruitment and retention
• Enhance staff ability to recruit, train and manage new volunteers
• Identify Join Hands’ most effective programs and increase participation in and support for them
• Expand opportunities for Join Hands children and families to obtain services needed to achieve their potential that are not offered by Join Hands

Strategies for Use of Volunteers:

1. Set goals for the number of program participants and volunteers that can be managed under the current staffing structure for each program (i.e. Boys and Girls Club, Family Mentoring, etc.). (The total number of new volunteers needed will be based on the desired volunteer to participant ratio for each program.)
2. Develop a “marketing” or outreach plan to recruit volunteers, including identification of specific organizations to target (charitable, religious, fraternal, etc.) and a schedule of outreach events
3. Develop a policy and plan for appropriate use of social media to recruit volunteers and increase awareness of Join Hands
4. Create materials to support a volunteer recruitment campaign, including scripted presentations, written brochures, and YouTube or other videos
5. Train staff to make public presentations about Join Hands volunteer opportunities
6. Solicit and train current volunteers to make recruitment presentations
7. Work with current volunteers to develop ongoing training and networking opportunities
8. Provide effective training to ensure volunteers are capable of working with youth and adults who have grown up in poverty or have experienced trauma
9. Investigate resources available through volunteer programs, such as United Way and the Points of Light program
10. Review and update current Volunteer Manual, orientation and training protocols, as needed
11. Add a volunteer coordinator staff position when current staff (or volunteer) capacity to manage volunteers is exceeded and resources are available

Strategies for Increased Effectiveness and Sustainability:

1. Review current programs to identify those most effective at achieving Join Hands mission, using the evaluation plan and Logic Model already developed
2. Identify and prioritize core programs of Join Hands, in order to further identify which services of Join Hands are supplementary (Meaning services supporting core programs, but not central to them, those to be provided only as staffing and volunteer power allow (I.e. furniture donations, food give aways, diaper program, etc.)
3. Review and update the Logic Model as needed
4. Develop an improved system of tracking program impact
5. Identify local organizations, schools, or governmental entities providing opportunities or services not provided by Join Hands that could meet needs of Join Hands’ children and parents (such as vocational training and education) and coordinate with them on referrals
6. Collaborate with other local organizations to advocate for Join Hands’ racial and economic justice priorities, such as educational equity
7. Attend community events in East St. Louis to reach potential volunteers and program participants and to learn about funding opportunities

Operational Strategies

Goal: Enhance Join Hands’ ability to administer finance, human resources, communications, and use of technology to support programming

Objectives:

• Facilitate leadership and other staff transitions
• Improve staff effectiveness and productivity

Strategies:

1. Maintain an organizational operations inventory, including nonprofit documentation, financial information, key financial and legal contacts, and insurance contacts and assign responsibility to update annually
2. Identify and address any organizational issues that need to be resolved prior to the leadership transition, such as personnel, financial or infrastructure needs
3. Review and update personnel policies and procedures, including job descriptions
4. Add a professional development plan to all annual employee performance reviews and obtain training as identified
5. Implement standardized document management practices and procedures using a centralized repository to maintain up-to-date critical organizational documents (such as Sharepoint in Office 365)

Implementation Plans

Join Hands management staff will develop an annual Action Plan each year (starting July 1, 2023), setting out specific tasks, timelines, and accountability to implement the strategies set out in this strategic plan. The Executive Director, LDT will be responsible for reviewing progress, revising as needed, and reporting to the Board at each quarterly meeting.

Strategic planning is not static, and issues may come up between formal planning processes. At least annually, the Board should review the organization’s current operations and identify whether any new issues need to be addressed in the annual action plans.