Strategic Plan Updates: Priorities in Action

During our strategic planning process, FamilyWise identified six priorities to guide our work. We wanted to share these priorities alongside concrete actions that we’ve taken to advance them over the past year.  

Implementing a Statewide Growth Strategy:

FamilyWise is committed to increasing access to family support services across the state that pay attention to the individualized needs of different communities and cultures. As the home of Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota and a leader in High-Fidelity Wraparound, we will bring partners together to develop and advance best practices that contribute to family wellbeing statewide.   

Last year FamilyWise launched our Training Institute, which expands our capacity-building training beyond NEAR Science (Neurobiology, Epigenetic, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Resilience) and Circle of Parents Facilitation to include High-Fidelity Wraparound training. We also expanded our NEAR Science training offerings by tailoring the curriculum for Early Childhood Education professionals and convened a Parent Leadership conference during National Parent Leadership Month.     

Maximizing Partnerships:

Partnership is at the foundation of our work with families and communities. We value the wisdom and expertise of our partners, including the families we walk alongside. As one organization we can’t do it all and we can’t do it alone. We want all families to be supported by their communities. To achieve this, we will identify and support strong partnerships, so that we can collectively meet family needs.    

Last year, in partnership with students participating in the Impact Lab at the Carlson School of Management, we developed a partnership map to help us identify areas of strong collaboration and where we want to grow our connections.     

Optimizing Talent to Support Growth:

Staffing is our most valuable asset. We can’t do our work without our talented staff team. We want to ensure that we have the right supports in place for our staff. To attract and grow leaders that represent the families we serve, we will invest resources in staff personal and professional growth.     

This year we established an equitable compensation policy that guarantees all candidates receive the highest possible compensation at the time of their job offer, removing negotiation from the conversation.

Engaging in Data Driven Decision-Making:

FamilyWise values shared learning and being responsive to what we learn. We want to be as effective as we can be in our support of families and communities by building on what’s working and stopping practices that don’t work. To make informed strategic decisions about our effectiveness, we will weave in practices at all levels of our organization that promote continuous learning from data.         

Over the past year, FamilyWise created two new tools — a program dashboard and an agency scorecard — to help us track and regularly reflect on measures that are important for understanding the health of our programs and our progress towards our goals. 

Strengthening a Culture of Reflection:

When staff take a step back and reflect on their work, they can re-engage with renewed energy and insight. To strengthen a culture of reflection, we will create intentional spaces for staff to pause their day-to-day work and process their experiences to foster growth and wellbeing.   

This year we created a standard agenda for team meetings across the agency that makes room for celebrations and reflections. Staff have also had access to training related to individual and community wellbeing, including yoga, mindfulness, and cultural competency.  

Creating a Brand Identity:

FamilyWise is unique and has an important story to tell. We have a broad scope of services from 1:1 parent coaching to community-based trainings to systems change through parent leadership, and more. We learn from families and communities, and their stories inform our organization’s key messages. Using processes inclusive of many voices, we will create shared language about who we are, what we do, and why it matters. We leverage our story to create change that affects families at all levels.   

This year we developed FamilyWise key messages for brand ambassadors like staff members, board members, and other supporters. We invested in evaluation to capture the perspectives of staff, participants, and partners, and we have shared those stories in places like our website blog and our Family Wellbeing Index.