NJHSA’s Center for Innovation & Research is designed to help agencies identify solutions for challenges.

Through its Center for Innovation & Research, The Network establishes partnerships with universities, government, corporations or philanthropies to develop, evaluate the efficacy of, and implement solutions to challenges. These solutions, or innovations, may be client service delivery focused or may address internal agency operations, governance or other operating factors. The Network’s Center for Innovation and Research provides ongoing training to its member agencies to increase their efforts to embrace the process of innovation and to incorporate strategies and planning processes which may contribute toward innovative responses to challenges.

JEWISH POVERTY CHALLENGE INITIATIVE

POVERTY CHALLENGE - YEAR II

The Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies recently chose eleven agencies to participate in Year Two of the NJHSA Jewish Poverty Challenge, an initiative of the Network’s Center for Innovation & Research. The goal of the program is to help NJHSA member agencies better analyze the marketplace, launch and manage solutions, and implement sustainable measures for success to address the many dynamics associated with responding to Jewish Poverty.

NJHSA has partnered with Start Co., a venture development consultancy firm with an expertise in launching startup, entrepreneurial initiatives and engaging municipalities, corporations and nonprofits in poverty reduction responses to work with:
Jewish Community Service Baltimore
Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis
Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay
Jewish Family Service of Atlantic & Cape May Counties
Jewish Family Service Cincinnati
Jewish Family Service Colorado
Jewish Family Services Northeastern New York
Jewish Family Service Orange County, NY
Jewish Family Service San Diego
Jewish Family Service Vancouver, BC
Jewish Family Service Western MA

The team at Start Co will provide expert consultation assistance as these agencies rethink and redesign products and services, adjusting assumptions and organization models, while paying special attention to the impact of COVID-19 on service delivery methods.

“Because of the pandemic, this recession arrived faster than any in modern history. The implications are overwhelming and potentially paralyzing. It would be easy to get stuck in the weeds of survival — heads down to deal with the crisis of today, but to do so could have catastrophic consequences for our agencies and our clients,” said Jerry Rubin, Chair of the Network’s Innovation Committee. “We must anticipate the path and implications of the recession.”

Reuben Rotman, President & CEO of the Network added that “The COVID-19 pandemic has even further heightened the critical need for innovative solutions to the challenges of Jewish Poverty. With newly vulnerable clients reaching out for assistance in unprecedented frequency, the agencies are challenged to identify new ways of working and new efforts to achieve sustainable solutions for those in need.”

Learn more about Year Two of the Jewish Poverty Challenge here.

UPCOMING YEAR II POVERTY CHALLENGE WEBINAR SCHEDULE

SAVE THE DATES

Upcoming Year Two Jewish Poverty Challenge Webinars
Open to all NJHSA Member Agencies

Webinar #1 – Reckoning with Uncertainty

Wednesday, August 5th | 1pm ET | Watch the recorded video here.

Assessing where the agency is considering the current environment, outlining strategies to help better navigate, and a customer and community discovery process to better inform the path ahead.

Webinar #2 – Assessing the Value Delivery System

Wednesday, September 2nd | 1pm ET | View the presentation here. Watch the presentation here.

Has anything changed with how you deliver your service? Should we be bringing more structure to these shifts such as understanding the client journey, data mining, operational shifts, and much more.

Webinar #3 – Crafting or Re-Crafting Your Intervention(s)

Wednesday, October 14th | 1pm ET | View a video of the presentation here. View the slides here.

Are your pre-COVID-19 solutions still relevant and do you need new ones which could involve new technologies and client tools, efficiency models, partner and funding strategies, etc.

Webinar #4 – Risk Factors & Competitive Landscape

Wednesday, November 4th | 1pm ET

Assessing and planning around factors that can derail agency efforts; understanding better partner alignments or misalignments, bargaining power with clients, and threats of other solutions and competing interests.

Webinar #5 – Talking Scale

Wednesday, December 9th | 1pm ET

Examining methods for scaling and efficiencies in operations; train the trainer, technology, scaled operations, service model, partnerships, etc.

Webinar #6 – Business & Service Model

Wednesday, January 6th | 1pm ET

Mapping your service delivery map, client relationship management plan, onboarding, and efforts to engage funders and resource providers.

Blog

Operating Model Canvas

An exercise for organizing and assessing your value delivery system In a past webinar we reviewed the Business Model Canvas which addressed the nine building blocks of an early stage concept or strategy. The left-hand side of the canvas was about outlining the key activities, key resources, and key partnerships needed to deliver your value […]

Opening Space for Social Innovations – Year Two Poverty Challenge Blog Post #5

In today’s world there is even more pressure on local communities to creatively tackle their own problems. While successes have been highlighted including social innovations like microfinance, we need to look at addressing the operational challenges of bringing about meaningful change in ways that community-based organizations can increasingly create more valuable social innovations with greater […]

Reckoning With Uncertainty: Risk Mitigation – Year Two Poverty Challenge Blog Post #4

Typically, we spend time having organizations think through risk before they launch new programs, services, and business models; and this should happen several times each year throughout the lifetime of the business. It was one thing to do a competitive analysis or an assessment of the ecosystem, which covers specific threats, it’s another to plan […]

Social Envelope Blog – Year Two Poverty Challenge Blog Post #3

Back in 2014 our organization began exploring the state of the digital divide in Memphis, and in that research, we came across a book called Beyond Technology’s Promise, by Joseph Giacquinta. This book used a term called The Social Envelope which describes the social set of expectations that surround a child and a computer. The […]

COVID-19 Forcing Your Organization to Revisit Everything – Year Two Poverty Challenge Blog #2

At Start Co. we work with startups, small businesses and nonprofit organizations by taking them through an entrepreneurial building process that reinforces and sharpens business and operational performance. Our process is rooted in the fundamentals of first and foremost delivering what the customer or client needs. In these rapidly shifting times all organizations including ours […]

Reckoning with Uncertainty – Year Two Poverty Challenge Blog #1

For those of us who work in economic and community development especially as it pertains to job creation, I have always felt that we don’t spend enough time talking about job destruction. There are so many numbers posted about success with this many jobs or that many jobs, but never in context with what we […]

Agencies Selected for Year Two NJHSA Jewish Poverty Challenge

The Entire Network is Invited to Participate in Year Two of the NJHSA Jewish Poverty Challenge

To accommodate the rapid pace of service responses developed by NJHSA member agencies in a short amount of time and the critical need to innovate, the Network’s Center for Innovation and Research has modified the NJHSA Jewish Poverty Challenge program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Jewish Poverty Challenge will be restructured in Year Two to […]