How to help communities tackle poverty

“You can’t wash your face with one finger, you need five fingers” — Somali Proverb

Too often, the people most affected by poverty are not full partners in designing the solutions to alleviate it. At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we believe that all lives have equal value – which means that low-income families who are working to make ends meet should have leadership roles in defining their own destiny.

In Washington state, the Somali Youth & Family Club is one of several local partners working to address poverty by strengthening the skills to advocate for better opportunities. By expanding their knowledge, developing leaders, and bringing real life experiences to the decision-making table, our local partners are taking the lead in creating their own solutions.

“We are part of many collaborative efforts, but this is our first time to own the agenda,” says Hamdi Abdulle, a leader in South King County’s growing Somali refugee and immigrant community. The Somali Youth & Family Club has already created a more effective system for getting information to new refugees about schools and resources. They are also seeking to improve communication with school districts on policies that are fair and equitable for Somalis and all refugees.

By working together, these leaders can overcome obstacles and lift up entire communities.

“We are excited to see our community come together and figure out how to authentically work with each other,” says Erin Okuno of the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition. “As a coalition, we want to change the conversation and disrupt the status quo in advocacy and public policy.”

Out of 64 applicants in a competitive RFP process, these six received grants to support community-led collaborations to drive long-term and sustainable change. Please join us in congratulating these local leaders:

• Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon
• El Centro de la Raza
• Native American Youth & Family Center
• Somali Youth & Family Club
• Southwest Youth & Family Services serving as fiscal sponsor to the Equity in Education Coalition & Southeast Seattle Education Coalition
• Skyway Solutions

“We will equip our community with the tools to strengthen their voice to make meaningful and lasting impact by advocating for themselves,” says Oscar Arana of the Native American Youth & Family Center in Portland. “Through collaboration, we learn new perspectives, share information and findings, replicate best practices, and ensure everyone reaches new levels of performance.”

During the application process, we learned that many nonprofits had been waiting for an opportunity like this to build their own capacity for collaboration and problem-solving – and other local funders are also paying attention to this community-defined need. As our partners explore stronger collaborations and create a learning cohort that is for the community and by the community, we will look to them to help inform our foundation’s approach.

In addition to this direct support for community-based organizations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also strengthening our support for local philanthropy in the Pacific Northwest – increasing capacity at the United Ways and community foundations that serve our low-income communities and communities of color.

These community foundations and United Ways have the strong networks, local knowledge and public trust that put them in a good position to mobilize when new opportunities and innovative solutions arise. Our partners in philanthropy can be more responsive to immediate community needs by re-granting foundation funds to smaller nonprofits and community projects. By providing funds for local partners to disburse, we can impact more families than by direct grant-making alone.

There is no single solution to breaking the cycle of poverty, but by working together with the people most affected and strengthening responses from local philanthropic organizations, we can create an environment that welcomes grassroots solutions, fosters opportunity and demonstrates that all lives have equal value.

This article is published in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Authors: Nelson Khov is a program coordinator of the Pacific Northwest initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. LiLi Liu is a Program Officer in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Program

Image: A woman picks tea leaves at a plantation in Nandi Hills, in Kenya’s highlands region west of capital Nairobi, November 5, 2014. REUTERS.