Meeting the Basic Needs of our Community
In September 2024, People’s Equal Action and Community Effort, Inc. (PEACE, Inc.) and FOCUS Greater Syracuse, Inc. (FOCUS) partnered to organize a Whole Family Summit to Meet the Basic Needs of the Central New York Community. The initiative emerged from a collaboration between both agencies, each responding to community requests for a forum not only to speak about but also to develop solutions for escalating needs.
Both entities possessed funding to pursue this agenda. FOCUS had secured a grant from the Central New York Community Foundation (CNYCF) to pilot an engagement process that identified actionable steps and solutions based on recent community reports, including PEACE, Inc.’s 2024 Community Needs Assessment (CNA) for Onondaga County. Meanwhile, PEACE, Inc. had recently received a grant from The Kresge Foundation to address the needs of low-income families through capacity building, cross-sector collaboration, and community-based advocacy.
With both entities recognizing the complexity of improving access to basic needs for people experiencing poverty, PEACE, Inc. proposed grounding the collaboration through a Whole Family approach. Additionally, PEACE, Inc. provided guidance and support to FOCUS in planning, implementing, and evaluating a replicable engagement process that could be used for other emerging community issues. The Summit occurred on the morning of 22 November 2024 at the Collegiate Hotel in Syracuse.
This report summarizes the methodologies used for the Summit, key insights from it, solutions identified by Summit participants, and recommendations/next steps for future community engagement.