Stories
Collective Impact Partnership Impact Stories
At Achieve Brown County we come together and work together toward a vision of a Brown County where cradle to career systems are equitable for every young person regardless of race, income, zip code or circumstance. Brown County is a complex system. It’s a system that includes people, ideas, beliefs, resources, and a variety of organizations and service providers.
Below you’ll read impact stories about how the Achieve Brown County Collective Impact Partnership has impacted Brown County.
Focus Area
Partnership Advancement
We maintain a common agenda, engage in policy work, and ensure diverse individuals and organizations are involved in the Collective Impact Partnership.
The Achieve Brown County Collective Impact Partnership commits to tackling the same issues, striving for the same results, across our county. We know we can achieve more when we all work towards the same goal.
Bringing Collective Impact to Brown County
Focused on: as Brown County’s first Collective Impact Partnership, we built a foundation and figured out how to bring collective impact work to life in our community.
System Impact
Connections & Relationships
(Relational Change Level)
- More than 70 community leaders joined together shifting their way of thinking about how we can solve complex challenges for young people in our community.
- Together they launched Achieve Brown County and started building its foundation.
- The vision expanded to more of the community, launching Six Outcome Teams and began establishing a shared vision and identifying opportunities to pursue cross sector Collaborative Action.
Mental Models
(Transformative Change Level)
- Collaboration to solve community needs became a countywide priority, including for grant making.
Where did this lead to?
Community Impact
This foundational work–with the additional work from the “community outcome team” visioning–led to the launch of our first collaborative action teams in 2017, including:
- Early Childhood System of Care Action Team
- Graduation Task Force Action Team
- FAFSA+ Action Team
A Summit to Rally the Community: Brown County Reading Success Summit
Focused on: sharing data and mobilizing our community to take collective action on a multi-factor, community-wide strategy to ensure all kids read at grade level by third grade.
System Impact
Connections & Relationships
(Relational Change Level)
- Over 200 community members attended the Summit.
Resource Flows
(Structural Change Level)
- Data we shared led to community action addressing gaps in resources, including:
- UW-Green Bay launching a Literacy Initiative.
- Howe Community Resource Center launching the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
- The Volunteer Center of Brown County growing its impact through Reading Coaches for Kids.
- Oneida Nation launching the Oneida Reads Initiative.
- The Friends of the Brown County Library launching “Pages and Stages – Grown with Books” in partnership with WIC and NEW Community Clinic. 2024. All rights reserved.
Where did this lead to?
A Call for More
Partners came together to shift how our community thinks about the solution to the reading crisis, and reimagining how Achieve Brown County as a collective impact partnership takes action to improve systems to support youth and families in achieving a youth outcome launching the Reading for the Future Strategy Team
Focus Area
Data Work
We analyze and visualize cradle-to-career data and make it available to our community for decision making. We use data to drive the Collaborative Action work we facilitate.
The Pilot of a Community Information System
Achieve Brown County and Brown County United Way collaborated with Community Partners to pilot an innovative Community Information System (CIS) as a way for our community to understand the connection and alignment of systems in Brown County, analyze it, and use data for decision making.
System Impact
Policy, Practices, Resource Flows
(Structural Change Level)
- Partners changed policies and practices to improve how they serve our community. Three healthcare systems, eight school districts and several nonprofits contributed deidentified and disaggregated data sets into the HIPPA and FERPA compliant system.
Connections & Relationships
(Relational Change Level)
- Relationships and trust was strengthened between system leaders as they worked through legal agreements and data sharing SOP’s.
Where did this lead to?
A Call for More
The success of this pilot will live on as we launch a Data Advisory Team in 2025 to expand the involvement of partners in our data work and shape the future shared vision for data use, research and initiatives. While the CIS itself became unsustainable due to costs and framework, the lessons learned through its pilot has transformed how our community views the use of data as a tool to improve how we work together.
Partner Data Sharing
Achieve Brown County and Brown County United Way collaborated with Community Partners to pilot an innovative way for our community to share and study data to inform action.
System Impact
Policy, Practices, Resource Flows
(Structural Change Level)
- Three healthcare systems, eight school districts and several nonprofits contributed deidentified and disaggregated data sets into a HIPPA and FERPA compliant system.
Connections & Relationships
(Relational Change Level)
- Relationships and trust was strengthened between system leaders as they worked through legal agreements and data sharing SOP’s.
Mental Models
(Transformative Change Level)
- Achieve Brown County backbone staff completed a proof-of-concept research project pairing data from across sectors, inspiring partners to envision new possibilities of what we can accomplish together.
Where did this lead to?
The lessons learned through this pilot will inform the launch of a Data Advisory Team in 2025 to shape the future shared vision for data use, research and initiatives.
Focus Area
Collaborative Action
We convene, facilitate and support Action Teams to improve one or more of the population level outcomes on our Youth Outcome Dashboard. Right now, we are focused on improving our Kindergarten Readiness and Early Grade Reading outcomes.
While Achieve Brown County does not launch or sustain programs, we convene and support our partners through a collaborative improvement process which uses data to pilot and test solutions to a proof point that equips existing organizations to scale successful initiatives for youth and families.
Action Team Impact: Early Childhood System of Care
When we focus on individual-level outcomes, we don’t get the full picture. We don’t see the norms, policies and practices embedded within systems — institutions and organizations — where young people live, learn and grow. We miss the role that complex systems play in creating inequities.
System Impact
Practices
(Structural Change Level)
Partners changed practices by standardizing the use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire developmental screening tool and referral process from health care to the Brown County Birth to 3 program.
Insights on the resulting Impact on Youth and Families:
The initial data from this initiative showed that the number of young people ages 1-month to 5.5 years old that received ASQ screenings increased by 300% from 2014 to 2020. This meant that more families were being supported in early detection of intervention needs for their children and getting referrals to support services.
The work of these action teams has transitioned to it’s permanent home. (the final phase of collective impact work!)
Where did this lead to?
The work of these action teams has transitioned to a permanent home. It’s sustained by Help Me Grow Northeast Wisconsin which is run by Family & Childcare Resources of N.E.W. Increasing the number of children completing the ASQ screening continues to be the focus of the work. Family Navigators are now embedded at select nonprofits to support families in completing the ASQ for their child and to help support navigating any needed services as a result of the ASQ.
Action Team Impact: Graduation Task Force
Focused on: improving High School Graduation by developing a system that linked students at risk of not graduating high school to supports to improve their likelihood of graduation.
System Impact
Practices
(Structural Change Level)
- Schools and nonprofits worked together to design a referral model called the 3 D’s:
- Detect: identify students using data
- Determine: developed a 3-tier system for referrals
- Deliver: the appropriate nonprofit delivers their program
- A Resource Gap for supporting students with post-graduation and career readiness was identified and the YMCA, with the support from ABC, launched the YAchievers to meet the gap.
Connections & Relationships
(Relational Change Level)
- Schools and The Boys and Girls Club launched a school-based model of the Boys and Girls Club BE GREAT: Graduate program exploring a new way for community partners and schools to collaborate.
- Team members shared the trust and relationships developed between them will forever change how they work together.
Insights on the resulting Impact on Youth and Families:
Data from Partners
The 3 D’s Referral Pilot Model served 730 students across grades 6-12 in 5 years.
- There was an increase in school engagement, including:
- Attendance improvement averaged 40%
- Behavior improvement averaged 81%.
- Course performance improvement averaged 55%
- Language Arts and 52% in math.
- 100% of seniors (n = 46) graduated high school.
- The new school-based model of the Boys & Girls Club BE GREAT: Graduate Program demonstrated a greater impact than the original community-based model.
- The YAchievers program served 50 students in its first year. In 2025, it now serves nearly 600 students in 15 schools across Brown County.
Where did this lead to?
School and nonprofit Partners engaged in this work shared that while some of what developed has continued other aspects were not financially sustainable. However, they shared the trust and relationships developed between them will forever change how they work together.
Reading for the Future Initiative (Phase 1)
Phase 1 Focused On: Collecting Community Voice with Human Centered Design & Root Cause Analysis
System Impact
Policies, Practices
(Structural Change Level)
- The human centered design model is now a critical component of ABCs Collaborative Improvement Process for the future to ensure youth and families are engaged in decision-making.
- 7 Root Causes were prioritized by community leading ABC to launch a multi-factor collaborative action approach to improve early grade reading.
Power Dynamics
(Relational Change Level)
- Strategy Team members worked with partners to learn from individuals with lived expertise of raising a young reader ensuring youth and families voices and experiences informed the direction of the Reading for the Future Initiative.
Where did this lead to?
Learnings
The partnership has prioritized the engagement of individuals with lived expertise in all aspects of Achieve Brown County and aims to hire a Community Mobilizer as a dedicated staff member to lead the partnership to achieve this goal within our work and across partner organizations.
Phase 2 of Reading for the Future (Action Teams)
Focus on: Leading Reading for the Future Initiative to ensure Partners and Action Teams have the resources they need (Data, Training, Tools) to identify and pilot system changes to advance our overall result of all third graders reading at grade level by third grade.