Understanding our 2Gen Focus

We believe there is even more potential to leverage SVP’s unique model in the Tucson community. In 2018-2020 we held robust community listening sessions with school districts, business leaders, nonprofit leaders, government, and foundations to assess the needs in Tucson. Through this community feedback we heard the voices of our local population through the organizations who serve them, and there was a clear need for a coordinated community level initiative in Tucson.

​

In addition, during that timeframe we evaluated how the SVP model was evolving in other cities and assessing the need and opportunities here in Tucson, the partnership has established a Community Impact Goal. This strategic shift challenges us to measure SVP’s success not just through the growth and success of our non-profit partners, but to hold ourselves accountable to community-level impact, realizing meaningful and measurable outcomes in the lives of Tucson’s people.

​

Following this period of research and stakeholder meetings, SVP made a commitment to build a robust and vibrant community of nonprofits that will create measurable 2Generation (2Gen) change. 2Gen is an innovative approach that focuses on both caretakers and their children, so that together they may unleash their full potential.

 

Why 2Gen?

Research shows that the well-being of parents and caretakers is crucial to their children’s social-emotional, physical, and economic well-being. At the same time, parents’ and caretakers’ ability to succeed in school and the workplace is substantially affected by how well their children are doing. The 2Gen approach considers and helps us to understand systemic barriers and how the uniqueness of each family requires personalized support to move from poverty to opportunity. Existing policies and programs often focus on one population or one generation at a time, limiting their effectiveness and the ability of systems to change so that families can move from poverty to opportunity.

​

This single-generation approach ignores the responsibilities and dependencies of parent-child relationships.

 

With a 2Gen approach, workforce development, adult education and parenting skill programs can be paired with child care assistance programs, literacy, social emotional learning and trauma-based services for children. Creating programming that includes all members of the family helps to create social connections for both generations and opens the door for otherwise isolated families to gain social capital. A bigger support network can be the difference between a setback being devastating or a setback being manageable, and 2Gen practices can help create a buffer for families to rely on in daily life and in crisis situations.

​

Our Plan
SVP is building a collaboration of nonprofits that bridges the gap between the early childhood learning community and nonprofits focused on adult job attainment. This 2Gen network will provide a continuum of services for families with young children, providing the intervention and learning opportunities children need, along with the resources caregivers and parents need in order to stabilize their lives.

​

The 2Gen approach to help families break the cycle of poverty is taking hold in states across the country yet is lacking any significant community effort in Southern Arizona. Many efforts are underway throughout Arizona and SVP is excited to contribute and build on these national and local efforts.

​

The challenges these nonprofit organizations face is real: 1) not having adequate resources to build or sustain their collaborative efforts and 2) the realization that many of the nonprofits that provide these services need capacity building in order to meet the need. 3) A desire to collaborate but not have the support or resources to engage effectively in collaboration and evaluation.

​

SVP Tucson is poised to address these issues by 1) building the capacity of nonprofits focused on early childhood education and/or adult workforce development, and 2) convening and organizing this community of nonprofits to identify and solve the challenges they experience in working together to serve the entire family.

 

As of July 2021, some of the key milestones we have accomplished are:

• Launched our 2Gen collaboration with JobPath, Make Way for Books, and Interfaith Community Services. Boys to Men Tucson, and Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona

• Established monthly CEO strategy meetings

• Completed an assessment and prioritized three key areas: Referral Systems, Data Tracking and Social Capital Programming

• Developed a one-year work plan and timeline including established working groups focused on the three key areas

• Increased our grant making with the introduction of 2Gen Accelerator Grants focused on building the infrastructure to support the 2Gen Collaboration
   

Why is SVP Tucson the right choice to organize this coalition?

• SVP has a successful history working alongside nonprofits and building community driven solutions that single organizations can’t tackle alone. We are a nexus of creating nonprofit partnerships and collaborations. With a track record of successfully strengthening and scaling nonprofits, as well as facilitating nonprofit partnerships, SVP Tucson is perfectly positioned to do this work.

• Building on our established and trusted relationships, SVP is convening our nonprofit partners, and co-developing a plan to coordinate services between providers. SVP is serving as the backbone of this nonprofit network – providing resources, support, and accountability.

• SVP has a successful track record of strengthening and scaling nonprofits, including the following averages in the nonprofits they provide multi-year capacity building support to: (Research study performed for SVP by UA Eller College of Management, Ten Year Annual Report)

  • 53% increase in financial reserves

  • 83% increase in annual budgets

  • 259% increase in number of clients served

• SVP has been studying the 2Gen Model from Ascend at the Aspen Institute and national efforts in 2Gen. In addition, SVP is working with a national expert in human services and 2Gen, Strategy with Rox, to support us in building a 2Gen Collaboration to drive better educational, job attainment, and social capital outcomes through a holistic, family centered approach.