When Linda Francis saw the job description to head a new initiative created by the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation she knew she’d be perfect for it.
“When I heard the job, I said, ‘That’s my job,'” recalled Francis, who stepped into the role of director of Success of All Youth (SAY) on Aug. 18. SAY aims to marshal local government, nonprofit and educational resources to address the social and emotional development of youths living in Oak Park and River Forest.
Shepherding this new initiative is no stretch for Francis, an industrial engineer by trade. It marries her skill sets as a data cruncher and her passion for community service. The initiative will use data-driven research to identify and address youth-related issues, modify programs to ensure effectiveness, and determine “indicators” to gauge success.
Francis refers to the process as “the continuous improvement method.” The goal, she said, is to continuously ensure that programs are getting better to help youth reach their full potential.
“The way we do that is by making decisions driven by data,” Francis said. The goal, she added, is to determine “what are the things helping us know we are being successful and not just kind of basing it on ‘Well we think we are making a difference.'”
That is one of the reasons, the foundation hired Francis, said its president and CEO, Kristin C. Vogen.
“We need a director who understands what continuous improvement means and has actually implemented it in some form,” Vogen said.
Though an engineer, Francis is no stranger to running a nonprofit. After spending 22 years in the telecommunication industry, she transitioned into the nonprofit sector. In 2010, she created Project SYNCERE or Serving Youth Needs Core Engineering Research Experiments. The program brings engineering professionals into the classroom to do project base learning.
She also sits on the board of Oak Park Education Foundation, which Francis said broadened her “understanding of what nonprofits do here in Oak Park.” OPEF provides enrichment programming for District 97 school children.
Oak Park and River Forest “have an army of small nonprofit organizations,” which Francis said “help fill in the gap,” to provide opportunities for youth who otherwise wouldn’t have any. It’s not just schools and government agencies stepping in, but “people in the community who see a need … and are willing to put in the time, the effort, the money,” to address that need, Francis added.
Francis uses that approach to implement SAY’s objectives. Modeled after Strive Together’s cradle-to-career initiative, SAY wants to build partnerships among community organizations and align resources to ensure student success in life.
Francis said many youth organizations tend to work independently of each other even if they are serving young people who are facing similar issues or challenges.
“Normally they try to handle that in their own silo,” Francis said. If organizations work together, she explained, they can find more cohesive ways that “use our resources more effectively.”
If an issue arises in the school, for example, SAY will try to bring mental health professionals, parent organizations, or the business community in to see if they can help address the problem. The hope is to create a collaborative model among organizations that is sustainable.
“We would try to act like a hub to marshal all the forces together to work on an issue and there are countless ones we can do,” she said.
SAY is still in the initial stages of determining what objectives to target but they are collecting data from different entities to identify challenges facing young people and ways to address them.
That could range from closing the achievement gap, to addressing substance abuse, improving self-esteem, mental health and safety issues. The objective, Francis said, is to ensure “youth are getting the full benefit of what is so great about both communities,” regardless of economic background.
However SAY’s focus on emotional and social well-being is intentional. Youth development was one of three priorities that came out of several community discussions. Others were sustainability and leadership development.
“Both communities are very active in planning ahead for our growth and improvement,” Francis noted.
While many programs focus on academic needs, when it comes to the development of the whole child, SAY aims to be different. It wants to focus on education as well as job readiness.
Vogen said it is a much more difficult aspect to evaluate, but it’s something that both communities can rally behind “to make sure our youth are really successful and productive members of society.”
Jobs that kids in kindergarten now may have when they are older may not be created yet, but they need to be prepared.
“So to be able to prepare them not for a particular job but prepare them for life, that’s really a lot of what we want to do,” Vogen said.