May 2003

How can large scale initiatives designed on improve the quality of life of families and children be sustained? Such initiatives must create sophisticated techniques for collecting, analyzing and presenting critical information on social needs; mobilize policymakers, business leaders and the public to take responsibility for addressing those needs; and work with public and private partners to secure long-term funding. Ultimately, large-scale initiatives aim for systems change: realigning the political landscape to focus on solutions to problems besetting disadvantaged individuals.

These are the conclusions from the seminar "Strategies to Ensure the Continued Success of Large-Scale Initiatives," part of the Urban Seminar Series directed by William Julius Wilson of Harvard University and funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in cooperation with the Urban Health Initiative. An in-depth summary and seminar papers can be found on Harvard's Joblessness and Urban Poverty website.

Several general lessons emerged during the course of the two-day conference:

Politics ultimately determines the sustainability of large-scale initiatives. Winning support for large-scale initiatives requires compromise and a broad coalition of supporters. However, efforts to forge such a coalition may complicate efforts to put any resulting funds to effective use, as multiple constituencies will lay claim to them. Leaders of large-scale initiatives must wield power with political savvy.

Leaders of large-scale initiatives must win the support of key public officials. Whether housed inside or outside government, initiatives that aim to effect systemic change must earn the endorsement of elected and appointed leaders. For advocates of systemic change, this entails allowing public figures to take credit for success while accepting responsibility when ideas and programs fail.

Leaders of large-scale initiatives must adapt promising models to their cities. Advocates need to examine their political milieu to determine how best to mobilize public support. Key considerations include whether the business sector has historically backed social initiatives, whether service providers and advocates have a history of competing or collaborating, the geographical location of children and families in need, and a city's tax and revenue structures. Studies that compare such attributes in different cities can begin to shed light on the most effective strategies for ensuring long-term support for children and families.

Sustaining large-scale initiatives requires winning hearts as well as minds. Promoters of large-scale initiatives must convince decision makers that everyone's children and all families in a community are important. However, appealing only to public and private benevolence will not suffice. Advocates must also cite common concerns such as maintaining property values and protecting all children from the ravages of drugs to motivate support for large-scale initiatives.

Successful large-scale initiatives may go out of business. Sustainability implies that cities explicitly hold themselves accountable for the health and safety of children and families rather than simply continue specific programs or initiatives. However, rainmakers (people and organizations who mobilize large sums of money and ensure renewable financing for large-scale social initiatives) must maintain pressure on public and private decision makers to sustain their focus on children and families.

Evaluating the outcomes of an initiative is essential to improving effectiveness and sustaining support. Leaders must show that their programs are efficient and effective to overcome public skepticism regarding social spending. However, linking programs to improved outcomes for children and families is difficult, and overstating results from weak or inconclusive research can do more harm than good. Convincing program providers to collect data - and families to participate - is also challenging. And research on program outcomes is costly and can divert significant funding from actual services. Despite these challenges, leaders need to pay close attention to documenting successes in a rigorous way. Partnerships with researchers at local universities can boost the credibility of efforts to establish correlation and even causality between programs and outcomes, and such researchers may seek their own grants to fund those studies.

For more information on this website about systems change, click here. For more information on this website about the Urban Seminar Series, click here.