Coro Pittsburgh’s NEXT Neighborhood Leaders is designed to cultivate a younger generation of community leaders for targeted neighborhoods. NEXT Leaders participate in a series of Civic Strategy Sessions in which they connect with established leaders and learn from their expertise in strengthening communities. On October 4, NEXT Northside Leaders met with Jerome Jackson, executive director of Operation Better Block, and Carol Washington, executive director of the Northshore Community Alliance. The session focused on how to manage a community-based nonprofit effectively with limited resources. The conversation focused on two forms of collaboration that can strengthen nonprofits.
First is collaboration across generations. Next Leaders are involved in mentoring relationships with established leaders in the Northside. Jackson and Washington are among the mentors. More collaboration across generations ensures that policies and programs that are working well can continue to be effective in the future. It can also help the next generation of leaders to learn from the mistakes of the past.
The second is collaboration across organizations. Jackson and Washington described a network of non-profit organizations in Manchester that plan programs together to maximize the use of scarce resources and eliminate duplication or needless competition among providers of community services.