{"id":581,"date":"2025-02-11T14:25:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T14:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/?p=581"},"modified":"2025-04-06T19:12:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T19:12:29","slug":"finding-and-nurturing-effective-partnerships-supporting-healthy-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/finding-and-nurturing-effective-partnerships-supporting-healthy-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding and Nurturing Effective Partnerships: Supporting Healthy Children"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For 20 years, The Nicholson Foundation worked to advance meaningful change in safety net service systems in New Jersey. Its grantmaking journey is described in Changing Systems, Changing Lives: Reflecting on 20 Years. Through stories and related text, the book showed how a small family foundation could take six guiding themes and put them into action through grants and partner support. In the process, the Foundation spurred real systems change that benefitted individuals, families, and communities.<\/p>\n

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\nA recent scholarly paper built on that work, helping to make the Foundation\u2019s approach broadly accessible to researchers, academics, and philanthropists. \u201cA Framework for Creating Systems Change,\u201d by Drs. William Brown and Wynn Rosser and published in The Foundation Review, presents a new model for systems change. Five of the model\u2019s seven components reflect themes in Changing Systems, Changing Lives<\/em>. The sixth component slightly shifts the emphasis of the Foundation\u2019s \u201cEngaging with Government\u201d theme, and the seventh highlights the Foundation\u2019s overall approach by including performance measurement as a distinct and separate component of the model.<\/p>\n

This blog is part of a series that shows how the Foundation\u2019s work aligns with the concepts from literature and practice embodied in the components of Brown and Rosser\u2019s model.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Performance<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A Multi-Partner Effort for Systems Change<\/h2>\n

In Brown and Rosser\u2019s discussion of the \u201cNurturing Partnerships\u201d component of their model, they talk
\nabout the importance of coordinated action, or \u201ccollective impact\u201d in empowering systems change. This
\nmeans strong relationships across actors and institutions in a system as well as efforts to coordinate,
\ncollaborate, and align activities.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the Foundation\u2019s work exemplified this aspect of Brown and Rosser\u2019s systems change
\nmodel:<\/strong> Throughout its history, the Foundation was interested in early childhood issues\u2014education, health, and overall well-being. In 2018, its attention focused on ACEs, an issue that was getting increased state and national visibility.<\/p>\n

ACEs,<\/strong> or Adverse Childhood Experiences, are stressful or traumatic experiences that occur to a child before the age of 18. They can include traumatic family experiences,<\/strong> such as neglect, abuse, or divorce, or adverse community environments,<\/strong> such as poverty, food or housing insecurity, violence, or lack of opportunity.<\/p>\n

The Foundation joined forces with two other foundations\u2014the Burke Foundation and the Turrell Fund\u2014and
\nthe New Jersey Department of Children and Families to form the New Jersey ACEs Collaborative. The Collaborative\u2019s first action was to sponsor an awareness-raising event attended by more than 100 state leaders representing multiple sectors. At the event, held in November 2018, the Collaborative announced the goal of developing an Action Plan to guide statewide efforts to address ACEs.<\/p>\n

Step 1<\/strong> in this effort was engaging in a joint effort to write Adverse Childhood Experiences: Opportunities to Prevent, Protect Against, and Heal from the Effects of ACEs in New Jersey.<\/em> Released in July 2019, the report provided background on ACEs in New Jersey and outlined five promising areas for action.<\/p>\n

Step 2<\/strong> was hiring Dave Ellis, a nationally known leader in ACEs, to draft the Action Plan and direct a new Office of Resilience, which would coordinate and lead the state\u2019s efforts in carrying out the Action Plan. The Action Plan was launched in February 2021 with several main goals:<\/p>\n