P&P December 2016

director‘s memo By Tracy Wareing Evans

Designing Ecosystems Together

T his issue is dedicated to partner- ships, including those across the public and private social-serving sectors. On the heels of our annual Harvard Health and Human Services Summit, this topic is very much at the top of my mind. For those of you unfa- miliar with this annual event, for seven years health and human service leaders from all levels of government and from the social-serving sector, in partner- ship with Harvard’s Leadership for a Networked World and Accenture, have been gathering in Cambridge about issues surrounding the Human Services Value Curve. Each year, our members and partners have the opportunity to step away from their daily demands and spend a weekend together “getting on the balcony” to see patterns and the bigger picture of what is happening in our communities and in our nation. The summit also provides an opportunity to zoom in on the enablers and barriers to achieving better outcomes for children and families. After this year’s summit, I am con- vinced, more than ever, of the value

of the human-serving system to be con- sistent with the recognition that we all need support at times along the way— throughout our lifecycle—if we are to achieve wellness and reach our full potential. This is a shared narrative we need to embrace across sectors.

that cross-sector collaboration means to our collective work and believe that finding the keys to “generative part- nerships” is at the heart of the system transformation we all seek. While in this short column I cannot possibly capture the richness of the discussion at the summit or illumi- nate the many ideas sparked by the case studies, I can share the following four insights on how together we can reimagine our current systems and create a new, modern ecosystem that supports all children and families to reach their full potential. Well-Being Is at the Heart of Our Collective Efforts Those of us working in the human- serving sector, as leaders in health, social services, education, law enforce- ment, or criminal justice—from public systems, social-serving organizations, or social enterprise—we all share a core belief that everyone should have the opportunity to live healthy lives and be well. We must frame the work

We Can Create More Permeable Boundaries Across Sectors

To do so, we need a more systematic understanding of enablers and barriers of the current ecosystems— recog- nizing the complexities within them and how deeply the cultural roots are embedded. We need to get at the right questions—some of which we now know (e.g., the social determi- nants of health), and others we have yet to discover. As Susan Dreyfus, president and CEO of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, noted: “This is our moment. We must get at the art and science of shared

See Director’s Memo on page 27

Photo illustration by Chris Campbell

3

December 2016 Policy&Practice