I.D.E.A. Coalition

Download icon for I.D.E.A. Coalition Progress Report

 

Mission:

To make Chautauqua County a place where everyone belongs and has opportunities to thrive, especially those who have been historically marginalized.

Coalition Description:

The Chautauqua County I.D.E.A. Coalition is designed to address, prioritize, and give voice to concerns of those individuals that have been historically marginalized and directly impacted by such things as racism and social injustice in our community. It serves as a bridge between impacted populations and the various organizations that provide services within Chautauqua County. It is also committed to both anti-racist and broad social justice work.

Goals:

  • Engage historically marginalized populations and identify barriers and concerns related to belonging and thriving.
  • Prioritize issues/themes that emerge from those direct conversations.
  • Create space for collaboration and collective work across organizations and those directly impacted to help address identified barriers and concerns.

Strategic Outcomes:

  • Community organizations and agencies equipped to better serve all residents.

  • Community members engaged to ensure accountability.

  • Community-based initiatives designed and implemented to sustain desired outcomes.

  • Businesses and Corporations engaged to contribute to positive social impact.

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IDEA Director Leecroft Clarke

Originally from Jamaica, Leecroft Clarke moved to Jamestown 22 years ago to work for SKF as a Business Development Manager; he also worked for TitanX Engine Cooling for almost ten years. In addition, he worked in various engineering and project lead positions for The Torrington Company (located in Connecticut) for more than 12 years. Clarke has a Bachelor of Engineering, a Master of Business Administration, and a Doctor of Ministry degree. He is currently the lead pastor of Healing Word Ministries Church of God. His extensive community service includes his roles as the chairperson of the Addiction Response Ministry of Chautauqua County, board member for the HOPE Chautauqua Coalition, co-chairperson of the Racial Reconciliation Taskforce of Chautauqua County and a member of the ESPRI Taskforce. Organizations interested in becoming a member can contact I.D.E.A. Director Leecroft Clarke at IDEA-Director@uwayscc.org.

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IDEA Org Chart
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IDEA One Sheet
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Download IDEA One Sheet

I.D.E.A. Community Engagement Liaisons

Patricia Graves – South County

Vidalys Holmes – South County

Sandra Lewis – North County

Shiloh Rivera Martinez – North County

I.D.E.A. Resources

 

Three Priority Areas For The Coalition's Work:

The following documents are narratives that capture significant problems in our community, as defined by directly impacted community members themselves.

These three barriers emerged as priorities during a series of town hall meetings and surveys held in the winter and spring of 2023.

The next steps will be to develop solution teams to address these challenges. This report highlights one of the three barriers identified by the community.

 

PRIORITY AREA: COMMUNITY/SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Click HERE or click the picture for the narrative below!

IDEA Community Social Narrative

 

 

PRIORITY AREA: BUSINESS/JOBS/EMPLOYMENT
Click HERE or click the picture for the narrative below!

IDEA Community Business Jobs Narrative

 

 

PRIORITY AREA: EDUCATION SYSTEM
Click HERE or click the picture for the narrative below!

 

IDEA Community Education System Narrative

IDEA Coalition Process
The focus of the diagram depicted below is to highlight the structural flow process for the 12-Month Approach strategy currently used by the IDEA Coalition’s Implementation Team to determine, analyze, and identify solutions regarding the community concerns/barriers.

We are now embarking on the third step of the process to identify the solutions for the top three focus areas mentioned.

IDEA 12-Month

 

  1. Listening Sessions
    Use the Town Hall meetings and conversations with Community Engagement Liaison to hear the voice of the community regarding their concerns and the nature of any barriers.

 

  1. Problem-Prioritization and Clarification 
    Prioritize what we have heard, identify previous work and demographic discovery, and conduct interviews and case studies with focus groups to clarify and deepen our shared understanding of the issues.

 

  1. Identify Solutions
    Engage all Coalition partners, directed impacted community members, and other agencies not part of the Coalition to identify/create solutions based on the outcome of the Problem-Prioritization and Clarification process. Develop written reports outlining shared strategies relative to the Coalition members and directly impacted communities.

 

  1. Implementation
    Implement the agreed-upon strategies with Coalition members taking a strong role in addressing the issues. Inform/provide the Coalition members and directly impacted communities with ongoing progress reports. 

 

  1. Lessons Learned
    Review/analyze feedback – what did we learn from this process, and how can we improve it? Are our strategies working? How can we improve our strategic work?

 

 

OPEN POSITIONS FOR SOLUTIONS TEAM COMMUNITY MEMBERS

 

Click HERE to download the job description in English:

Click HERE to download the job description in Spanish.
Job Description Solutions Team Community Member