Innovation Lab - Grant Applicant Information Sessions
As part of our Safety Net Resiliency Initiative, we are accepting grant applications until November 2, 2018 for pilot projects through our Innovation Lab.
Innovation Lab Goals
The Innovation Lab seeks to advance community learning and includes two short-term goals:
- Safety net system providers increasingly collaborate to achieve impact through strategic, intentional and system realignment; and
- Providers achieve improved and more holistic understanding of consumers and changing county demographics to improve the system's responsiveness, build momentum and shift public narrative about the system.
Innovation Lab Description
This Innovation Lab is a virtual experience supporting pilot testing and/or pilot projects that are:
- Relatively small scale in terms of time and budget;
- Support preliminary efforts to evaluate feasibility, time, cost, adverse events and
- Designed to inform and improve upon the project design elements prior to seeking capital necessary to support a full-scale implementation, if warranted.
Information Sessions
We are hosting two, 90-minute information sessions for organizations interested in applying for a grant.
Session One
Monday, October 15
3:30 - 5:00pm
Session Two
Tuesday, October 16
9:00 - 10:30am
Both sessions will be held in the Walton Room at the Community Partners Center at 2506 North Broad Street in Colmar.
Please note: Attendance at one of these information sessions is REQUIRED for any organization that did not participate on a Design Team. Design Team participating organizations are welcome, but are not required to attend these sessions. All those wishing to attend are asked to register.
Additional information about the Request for Proposals can be found here.
Background
Our board of directors has committed the bulk of its resources to the Safety Net Resiliency Initiative, a 10-year, systems change effort promoting a financially resilient safety net system that supports meeting the needs of the community. The initiative is designed to work in phases informed through a diverse set of community engagement strategies.
We have been designing this new initiative since 2016, with significant input from the nonprofit community. At two large events held in fall 2017 with nonprofits and county representatives, the following vision was crafted:
"We envision a resilient and financially sustainable safety net that allows anyone in Montgomery County to access high quality, coordinated, equitable and culturally appropriate services no matter who they are, what they need or where they live."
From March - August, the Safety Net Resiliency Initiative hosted four facilitated Design Teams, on which more than 50 organizations and about a dozen county health and human service employees participated. The Design Teams worked in identified by the nonprofit community as important to bringing this vision to life:
- Public-private collaboration and coordination
- "No wrong door" access to the safety net
- Data sharing and systems integration
- Advocacy and communication
These Design Teams brainstormed and honed six broad strategies to strengthen the safety net system. The Innovation Lab is the first idea we are implementing.