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NNIP PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Urban Strategies Council Institutional Setting The Urban Strategies Council (the Council) is a community building support and advocacy organization located in Oakland, California. Founded as a non-profit organization in 1987, the Council’s mission is to eliminate persistent poverty by helping to transform low-income neighborhoods into vibrant, healthy communities. The Council currently operates five programs to achieve its mission, including: 1) economic opportunity; 2) community safety and justice; 3) education excellence; 4) information and technology; and 5) community capacity building . The Council applies its core skills -- research and data analysis; convening, facilitation and strategic planning; mobilizing resources; capacity building; and advocacy-- to achieve its mission. As a community building intermediary, the Council serves as a facilitator of comprehensive initiatives, convening residents, stakeholders, policy makers, public agency managers, and service providers to devise and implement comprehensive solutions to a wide range of problems facing low-income children and families. The Council works with stakeholders in low-income communities, community-based organizations, and major public systems to expand services for children and families, improve health, educational and other outcomes, and increase employment and economic opportunities. The Council provides technical assistance, research support, training, and networking for community building initiatives. These services have increased community capacities to conduct outreach and organizing; improve and expand programs and services through the use of data and advocacy; and engage in planning and implementing community improvement. Our methods of support are grounded in a commitment to intensive, responsive, peer-based technical assistance, respectful of the local variation that uniquely defines each neighborhood and situation. We build relationships of trust which can sustain a focus on community building over the long-term. Information and Technology The Urban Strategies research team has extensive experience in the design and implementation of web based GIS systems and the Council has been a leader in the use of spatial technologies in their application to local issues and decision making. The Council operates two web mapping systems (InfoOakland and InfoAlamedaCounty) that provide local level data to help guide decision making and policy and empower local communities with access to reliable data and maps to support their agendas and goals. The Council provides extensive training on the use of these systems that are tailored towards the needs of grassroots organizations and community based collaborations. These trainings range from overviews of GIS and mapping social data to full day intensive sessions guiding residents in the presentation of data to local officials and the aplpication of data and maps to their unique situations. The Council plays a supporting role to many local organizations through the provision of data and maps and also in the implementation of technology solutions to better manage their operations and to ensure they collect quality data on their operations to support future funding applications and to aid in the evaluation of their services. Current projects include a detailed Health Gap Survey of formerly incarcerated persons to examine the adequacy of post-release health care services. This survey will inform local service providers and policy makers about the access to required health services in our community. The Council is also supporting a new coalition of service providers and government insitutions looking to provide a network of financial education and counseling services to low-income families through the creation of a website with an interactive partner database that allows counselors and individuals to see which agencies offer services relevant to their clients. The Council produces detailed mapping and reporting of violent crimes in our cities, education outcomes and disparities, housing issues and economic development monitoring. PARTNER BIOGRAPHIES: Junious Williams began work with Urban Strategies Council in 1992 and became CEO in September 1998. He holds a Bachelor's degree in sociology and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan, where he also attended graduate school in education administration. He began his legal career as an advocate for parents and students as founder of the Saginaw Student Rights Center and co-founder of the Ann Arbor Student Advocacy Center. He has done extensive work with school districts and community organizations in the areas of school desegregation, education equity and school improvement as associate director of the Programs for Educational Opportunity at the University of Michigan School of Education. He also served as associate professor of ethnic studies and assistant to the vice president for academic affairs at California State University, Fresno. He has worked on a variety of school reform, youth development and community building efforts in Oakland, and with partner organizations in other cities through the Council's Community Building Support Center. He is a member of the Boards of Directors for the National Community Building Network, the Center for Law and Education, The Cross-City Campaign for Urban Education Reform and the National Trust for the Development of African American Men. He has published numerous articles, research reports and training materials on topics ranging from student discipline and educational equity to peer learning and community building. Steve Spiker is currently the Director of Research/Information and Technology at the Urban Strategies Council. His primary duty is the coordination of all research and data production at the Council. He also heads up the training and development of InfoAlamedaCounty.org and manages the Council’s IT systems. Steve received his Masters of Geographic Information Science (MSc) from the School of Spatial Sciences at Curtin University in Western Australia. He has worked in a variety of roles from GPS specialist in land surveying to IT administration in the UK. His masters examined the geographic variation in surgical rates and applied new spatial analysis techniques to confirm relationships between geography and access to health services. Over the past few years he has worked as a spatial epidemiologist with a large public health service. During this time he established a spatial database system for the statewide health department, developed prototype web mapping systems for emergency health service call centers, conducted analysis on the access and barriers to health services and trialed the use of GPS phones to increase security for health workers in dangerous areas. He has been actively involved in promoting the application of GIS to the public health field. He was a consultant on the national Early Developmental Index study in Australia that surveyed over 20,000 four year olds and analyzed their readiness for school and considered brain development issues that would impact the later health of these children. As Director of Research, he is actively involved in all aspects of the various research projects currently underway at the council. He has experience in criminal safety and justice, economic development, housing issues, health and the application of GIS and other technologies to these issues. He works closely with community groups to help them develop and implement IT solutions to meet their unique needs and developed data storage and management systems for many such organizations. |