This week, I was really struck by The Columbus Foundation learning session discussion about systems. Racking my brain for systems that actually work, everything I kept coming back to involved holistic solutions to big problems. Housing has been a passion of mine for the past three years, and “Housing First” is an approach that permanent affordable housing providers practice every day. Historically, people experiencing homelessness were forced to address their “problems” (i.e., addiction, joblessness, money management), either through completing workshops, or by transitioning between steps of various programs before they could access permanent housing. The Housing First approach takes into account Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – emphasizing that basic needs must be met before more complex needs can be addressed. It seems like common sense to me – if you’re worrying about where your family is going to sleep that night, but you’re being forced to complete a budgeting workshop – how much of that can you really absorb? 

I am reminded of the work Nationwide Children’s Hospital is doing in Columbus – they are treating the entire neighborhood surrounding the hospital as “the patient”, recognizing that there are social determinants of health that play a huge role in the outcomes of medical interventions. By focusing on things like housing, employing residents from the community, and job & leadership training, the vacancy rate of homes in the area decreased, the graduation rate increased, and the homicide rate decreased. The hospital is hopeful that these changes also lead to improvements in childhood asthma, child abuse reports, crime reports, and neighborhood displacements. 

Central Community House just GETS this concept, and truly takes a holistic approach to addressing seemingly any of the needs that the community might face. While CCH offers many programs to reach different groups of people, and those programs all have their own goals, the Family Stabilization arm of the organization supports all of them. One of my favorite programs at CCH is ACE (The Academy for Community Entrepreneurs). The goal of ACE is to help members of the community start and/or expand small businesses. The statistics are pretty convincing – increasing entrepreneurship by just 1% results in a 2% decline in the poverty rate. While ACE does a great job at providing culturally competent programming, access to capital, and addressing the “Trust Gap” faced by African American entrepreneurs, perhaps one of the most important things the ACE program provides is additional support through connections with the Family Stabilization program. By providing wraparound services (e.g., rent, utilities, food assistance, covering costs of car repairs, access to childcare & after school programs, etc.) ACE helps budding entrepreneurs focus on growing their businesses and accomplishing their goals, while getting support with the basic needs. 

I hope that we are all able to take out of this fellowship the importance of upholding the systems that work, and tearing down those that don’t! For me, personally, I know that I love working towards causes that take a holistic approach to serve the whole person, meeting all of the needs that they may have for long-term success.