We are a community based coalition of citizens, advocates, parents and providers, partnering with local youth, parents, families, faith based groups, service providers, business, philanthropy, schools, policy makers, legislators, media organizations, advocates and concerned citizens in every step of the design, launch and implementation of this campaign. We are generously funded and supported by Casey Family Programs, the nation’s premier funder of foster care and adoption in the United States.
Our goal is to safely reduce the number of children in foster care by ensuring that every child in Southern Nevada has a safe, permanent home.
We were created to bring together the best of public policy research, data, and models across the nation with the local resources, talents and passions that Southern Nevadans have to benefit children and families in our community. In order to do that, we must address gaps in our service system, and the way we approach the problems families have. To get to the answers, and come up with local solutions to local problems, The Community We Will was formed, after two years of meeting with individuals and working with advocates to determine what was needed to move the political dial, and change the way we invest in our families.
Our history - In Spring of 2009, Tom Morton, Director of the Clark County Department of Family Services, and Casey Family Programs, the nation’s premier foundation investing in foster care, came together to engage the community in designing our future, and charting a course for success. The Community We Will is coordinated by Cyndy Ortiz Gustafson, local policy strategist and child advocate.
The work of the campaign is done with the support and guidance of an Advance Team, made up of administrators, service providers, advocates, community organizers, philanthropists and connectors. In addition, multiple workgroups meet to advance the work around five key areas, including developing the business case for change, engaging the community, communicating the message, measuring and evaluating progress, and sustaining the work.
Our mission is to strengthen families, and if we are successful, we will effectively prevent the need for foster care for hundreds of children every year.
We are only as strong as the community we live in, and this campaign, and our work, centers on that premise. We are looking for partners, collaborators, advocates, like minds from all sectors of the community to join us in this work, and have designed our entire project around you- your ideas, voices, skills and passion, because we know that in communities across the country where real change has occurred, it literally took everyone.
