Expansion plans: The Family Success Model

I am excited to be writing about the rollout and my contributions to the new way of working and expansion at East Durham Children’s Initiative (EDCI) in Durham North Carolina- called the Family Success Model. It has also been great to be building upon the previous work done by Jennifer and Megan who were GSK PULSE volunteers here at EDCI in 2017.  This model includes many significant changes which the EDCI staff have worked on developing to better help the families in East Durham ensure that their child is ready for career or college by the time they graduate.  I was the point person in facilitating the staff to roll this new model out to the EDCI families in a series Open Houses (2 of which I will complete prior to going back to GSK).

Here are a few pictures from our first Open House.  We had 44 families with over 100 kids attend. There are a few key elements of this expansion model- namely – all families to have an advocate; more customized level of support for each family; a Family Success Plan that consider’s each child’s unique needs; and more comprehensive support along with an expansion to the 27703 zipcode to reach more families in Durham.  Grand success for the first time Open House and very receptive and engaged families. Sunil and Rashmi joined as volunteers from GSK in the picture on the left with David Reese, CEO of EDCI.

Natalie from EDCI (pictured below) was a key team member in the success of this first ever EDCI Open House. 

After the first Open House this EDCI team immediately discussed what worked and what could be done better so that we could do the next Open House scheduled for Nov 2018 even better. Bottom picture is of many of the EDCI staff who spent their Saturday helping out. From L to R- Kathleen, Renu, Denise, David, Mary, Darryl, Carla, Lanishia, Gabriel, Nicky, Pam and Katherin.

Layne, another local GSK PULSE volunteer came to visit me at the EDCI office and we joined the weekly EDCI run bilingual story hour (picture below). Another example of hands on developmental support to young mothers.

Meanwhile, I was fortunate to be able to attend 2 training conducted by the Racial Equity Institute, an organization designed to help leaders and organizations to develop better understanding of the origins and magnitude of the current issue and prevalence of racism in US, both in their own community and the nation. It was chilling and saddening to see and start to understand the systematic and institutional processes in place, today.

We have a lot of work to do indeed. Here is a data slide which left a high impact on me.

Levia and I successfully organized an onsite EDCI staff tour of GSK RTP site and facilitate a career information session with many talented GSK employees at the RTP NC location.

The picture on the top left is of various career paths shared by GSK colleagues with the EDCI staff.  It was also an exciting opportunity for many former GSK PULSE volunteers to get together. The bottom picture is with Jennifer, Geri, myself, Shaun  and Levia- all GSK PULSE volunteers and of which 4 of us with EDCI as the non-profit organization (Geri went to Philly for her PULSE assignment)

And finally a group photo with all the EDCI staff and GSK folks who attended the GSK career info session.  (L to R- Renu, Eboni, Amy, Shaun, Kim, Ella, Gabriele, Geri, Jamiece, Charelle, Rebecca, Natalie, Laura, Kristina, Jennifer , Daniel and Levia).