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Deb Nankivell can hardly be called shy and retiring. In a recent email message to us noting the unveiling of a school reform initiative for the Fresno Unified School District, she noted that it was a momentous day in Fresno&We did a community intervention in a school district of 80,000 kids that was widely believed to be academically and fiscally broken. Nankivell mentioned that next up is a community-wide barn raising. She wrote that the intervention was the ultimate equity issue. Until a community takes responsibility for all its children&the American Dream cannot be realized.
Nankivell was referring to Choosing Our Future: A Community-wide Call to Action, a 122 page document that tells the unvarnished truth about the academic and fiscal health of Fresno Unified, the region's largest school district. The community barn raising will occur through recruitment of volunteers to actively implement the recommendations of the report.
Nankivell serves as the CEO for the Fresno Business Council, a nonprofit organization of 125 business leaders committed to partnering with other stakeholders to improve social and economic conditions in the region. The organization's primary areas of focus include job creation, education and workforce development, public affairs, and public safety. As the Council's members began work on these issues, they were surprised to find that real progress would require a broad range of partnerships across sectors and constituencies. Nankivell noted that the Fresno Business Council began with a chamber DNA, but morphed into a regional steward.
Ten community values frame the agenda for the Fresno Business Council and its collaborative partners. The Fresno Region Community Values have endorsed by the region's key leadership organizations and serve as the cornerstone for every project the partners undertake. The Community Values have been posted on an electronic sign board that greets travelers at Fresno International Airport. They represent a set of behavioral norms that define stewardship for the region's leaders. Nankivell notes that stewards won't play under the old rules of the game (blind self-interest, operating in sectoral silos, etc.). They emerge when the rules change. The Community Values became an explicit way the community talked about how it would operate; they fostered a new, more collaborative culture. Nankivell characterizes the civic sector is a scared space, a common space where community values are the rule.
In her email to us, Nankivell wrote What I have learned is the community values do many things. They are a magnet, glue, and screen. They also eliminate labels and this has been extremely important. When people choose to play with us, they agree to let their labels go. It also allows us to form teams based upon competence and not have to worry about political correctness.
She added, I keep learning that the project drives the form. We shift and adapt so easily today. We lead and follow as if in a ballet depending upon the need.
Nankivell noted that the Fresno Business Council is like the invisible infrastructure, the fiber painstakingly laid through out the community. She felt humbled by the business leaders' willingness to let go of their notions for the need for business plans and structure, and just went for it out of the belief that change was possible.
She concluded Inclusive stewardship to me is about no victims, everybody takes responsibility to row&If we focus on weaknesses and wounds, we argue for limitations. If we believe people add value, we hand them an oar.
For more information contact Deborah Nankivell at .
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