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Lakewood Community Collaboration
Overview:
The Lakewood Community Collaboration was created by the Lakewood City Council to implement strategies to foster a community where children, families and neighborhoods can thrive. It meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month* from 9.30 to 11:30 in the Lakewood City Hall Council Chambers. (Except for the months of July and August)
The Collaboration is an organization with an open membership, constituted of local human services providers and others committed to provide non-duplicative, collaborative and comprehensive human services for Lakewood. The Collaboration funtions through several standing committees which will oversee various portions of the collaborative implementation process. A Human Services Funding Advisory Board is responsible for making human services funding recommendations to the City Council.
Vision of the Lakewood Community Collaboration:
Lakewood is a safe, vibrant and hopeful community where people are healthy and inspired with the knowledge, skills and energy to be independent and of service to others.
Mission of the Lakewood Community Collaboration:
The City shall build a healthy, safe community for all people of Lakewood, through a collaborative group of community organizations, school district, human services agencies, businesses and individuals who share common goals and a unity of purpose.
Goals & Policies of the Lakewood Community Collaboration:
*Improve the awareness, coordination, delivery and outcomes of human services efforts in Lakewood
*Encourage the provision of neighborhood-based collaborations using collective resources to foster healthy, functional families in Lakewood
*Give all citizens, including youth, a voice in decision making and a role in building a safe and better community
*In partnership with Clover Park School District and other schools, reduce barriers to learning, so that students come to school ready to learn and graduate from school as lifelong learners, ready to work
*Create conditions that enable all people of Lakewood to access resources and take responsibility for their own success
*Create conditions that assure safe and healthy communities
*Keep Lakewood’s Promise to our youth
*Strengthen the communication system to inform community of activities of the Community Collaboration
Milestones:
¨Collaborative efforts to address the needs of children and youth began in the early 1990’s with a partnership between Clover Park School District and Great Lakes Mental Health.
¨In fall 1993, Communities in Schools of Lakewood began a formalized collaborative movement at Oakwood Elementary School. Their mission was: “to establish a network of parents, community services and volunteers, working together at school and community sites, to create conditions that promote readiness to learn and success in school…”
¨The City of Lakewood was incorporated in 1995. The new city took this a step further and passed a city ordinance creating the Lakewood Human Services collaboration. 1% of the City budget was set aside each year for Human Service grants. More than 80 volunteers, leaders from the City, the school district and human services agencies met to lay out the vision of what a collaborative human services delivery system could look like.
¨After 1997, Lakewood joined the America’s Promise movement, founded by General Colin Powell, and created Lakewood’s Promise.
¨Lakewood’s Promise held a kickoff rally in May 1998, attended by Washington’s Governor, Gary Locke.
¨In 2002, Lakewood became one of thirteen national demonstration sites for America’s Promise.
¨Lakewood’s Promise was chosen the Outstanding Community of Promise among demonstration sites in May 2003.
¨In a nationwide selection process, Lakewood was selected in 2005 as one of the 100 Best Communities of Promise for young people. In 2007, Lakewood has been selected again as one of the 100 Best Communities of Promise for young people.
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