2010 Van Amson Fellow: Start Small. Think Big.
Claire Fram
CC, 2011
2010 Van Amson Fellow: Start Small. Think Big.
In January, I heard that Jenny – my cousin’s wife – was starting her own not-for-profit in the South Bronx, so like any over-committed, over-ambitious student I saw a great opportunity for my next unpaid internship. I was excited to sign-on with Start Small. Think Big. Jumping right into the formative stage of Start Small, I was not sure how the organization would take form, or what I would be able to do to support it. I was optimistic that this opportunity to support a new New York organization that aimed to address an old New York problem, poverty, would bring about real results.
During my time with Start Small, I have sat in on board meetings, met with program coordinators at Bronx schools, participated in meetings to build partnerships with other organizations, learned about the technical feat of database systems, built database frameworks, collaborated on evaluation methods, and a myriad of other tasks that put me in the middle of the fast-paced growth of Start Small. This summer, much of the foundational set-up and partner-alliance growth we developed in the spring transformed into concrete client programming during the summer. Clients were meeting with a personal financial counselor, small-business owners were attending small-business legal clinics and receiving business counseling, and we hosted a mini-course on financial literacy.
At the time Start Small officially incorporated in February, there was one full time employee Jenny DaSilva, the Founder and Executive Director, and one intern, me. Come August 2, a program meeting in our one office was stuffed with three interns, an Executive Director, a transitioning Acting Executive Director, and a school-based program’s staff member from a near by school. It was difficult to fit everyone around a desk to conduct even an informal meeting. The growth of Start Small was promising. It showed interest and support for the organization. Both community-based organizations, with deep familiarity with the needs of the community, and individuals who were new to the community, bringing fresh commitments to community empowerment, inspired innovative conversations about solutions to the chronic problem of poverty in the South Bronx. Start Small served as a catalyst, spurring collaboration between programs like Youth and Adult Education Services and social workers; collaborations that had surprisingly been over looked previously. These interactions were little victories for Start Small throughout the summer.
However, while Start Small works furiously to provide more services to the community, it is still not able to satiate the demand for financial empowerment support quickly enough. Financial literacy programs, civil legal pro-bono assistance, and even benefits counseling are severely underprovided in the Mott Haven and Melrose community. Start Small, while it is a new organization itself, relies on existing service providers. Start Small coordinates services from not-for-profits, municipal, state, and even federal programs that are designed to address poverty in neighborhoods like the South Bronx. Without Start Small, those programs were not connecting with their intended clients; poverty in the South Bronx is still very present.
Thus, while I have relished the successes of Start Small, I have also become more critical of not-for-profit and social services. I am disappointed in the inefficiency of not-for-profits and social services providers. The web of programming and services dreamt-up to solve issues of poverty appears severely tangled. Funding for any given program often adds restraints on client eligibility, or encourages an inappropriately competitive divide between similar not-for-profits.
As a consequence, I appreciate that Start Small has taken on coordination of services as its priority. But as a student taught to imagine improved solutions, I wince a little at the fact that Start Small is, in some ways, enabling the convoluted service providers. I am of the mind set that the entire not-for-profit sector needs a structural update. When I initiated my engagement with Start Small, I could not have foreseen how much my beliefs about making social change would be challenged. Now I am looking forward to wrestling with new ways to consider how we meet social needs as a modern community.
Tags: fellowship
rss