Jacksonville's Strategic Partnerships Model
Nationally Recognized
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The Community Foundation and the City of Jacksonville accepting 2023 HUD Secretary's Award from U.S. HUD and the Council on Foundations. |
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Dawn Lockhart and Sarah Schmidt (City of Jacksonville) with Kathleen Shaw (The Community Foundation) holding the 2023 HUD Secretary's Award. |
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The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida was honored at the Council on Foundations’ Leading Locally conference in Denver for partnering with the City of Jacksonville in the launch of the Office of Strategic Partnerships within the Office of the Mayor. The award is given to foundations annually to recognize excellence in partnerships that have transformed the relationship between the public and philanthropic sectors and led to measurable benefits for local communities.
“This year’s awardees represent the heartbeat of our great nation,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “Every day, they respond to the call of some of our most vulnerable neighbors, advocate on their behalf, and confront some of our most pressing challenges.”
Dawn Lockhart, the inaugural Director of Strategic Partnerships who has led the work since 2016, joined Kathleen Shaw in receiving the award onstage, one of nine partnerships recognized from across the country. The awards were presented by Solomon Greene, HUD’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, and Kathleen Enright, President and CEO, Council on Foundations.
“We are proud to receive this honor on behalf of many partners, most importantly, the City of Jacksonville, the public sector partner whose work was recognized through the award,” said Kathleen Shaw, Senior Vice President, Program and Initiatives, at The Community Foundation. “The city has embraced this position as an essential tool to foster collaboration with the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. I especially want to express my gratitude to Dawn Lockhart, whose leadership has led to a measurable, positive impact in the community. She has exceeded our expectations for what we hoped to see when we championed the creation of this role.”
In 2015, Jacksonville became the first city in the Southeast to create a new, high-level city position to facilitate collaboration between the public sector, philanthropy, nonprofits, and business. The model was inspired by the example of Denver, Los Angeles, Boston, and Michigan, and recommended by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which calls it a “dynamic” and “forward-thinking” approach. This role has quickly become an integral administrative role in many other municipalities as the country has continued to respond to challenges and opportunities that impact vulnerable citizens.
The Community Foundation leveraged philanthropic dollars from 15 different funders to pilot the new position. In 2016, the inaugural position was created and the first Director, Dawn Lockhart, was hired. In 2019, Mayor Lenny Curry fully funded the role and expanded the office to include Sarah Schmidt, Deputy Director of Strategic Partnerships.
“I am proud that our partnerships with community leaders and organizations are being nationally recognized,” said Mayor Curry. “Listening to the experts and working together with community partners is the most effective way of advancing the greater good, which is the most important mission of good government. We have implemented best practices, leveraged resources and aligned strategies to ensure that the beneficiary of our work, the citizens of Jacksonville, receive the greatest impact and service.”
Click on the link below to learn more about the award recognition.
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About Strategic Partnerships |
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With increasing demands for government services, traditional models are incapable of addressing the complicated issues facing local governments in the twenty-first century. In 2015, Jacksonville philanthropic and nonprofit leaders were invited to serve on Mayor Curry’s City/Not-for-Profit Interface Transition Subcommittee, where they successfully advocated for the launch of the inaugural Office of Strategic Partnerships within the City of Jacksonville’s Office of the Mayor.
In 2016, Mayor Curry adopted the recommendations by the transition subcommittee and launched the Office of Strategic Partnerships ("Office") by hiring the inaugural Director of Strategic Partnerships. Following in the footsteps of Denver, Los Angeles, Boston, and Michigan, Jacksonville is the first city in the southeast to launch this innovative model, which has since demonstrated a significant return on investment. Click here to view a report from the University of Southern California's Center for Philanthropy and Public Policy to learn about offices of strategic partnerships nationally.
The Office recognizes the importance of the public, private, philanthropic and nonprofit sectors in a vibrant community, and it understands that a strong, civic-minded community values strategically collaborating to create impact. By strengthening the connection between the City of Jacksonville and cross-sector partners, our community will be better able to address complex community issues and leverage opportunities for Jacksonville's citizens.
To ensure a targeted response to opportunities and challenges, the Office has developed cross-sector initiatives, cultivated partnerships, and convened numerous task forces and working groups around many community priorities. Outlined below is a targeted focus on a few of the Office’s key strategies, initiatives, and collaborative efforts that have improved community outcomes. It is not an exhaustive list and is intended only to provide a snapshot.
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Mayor's Downtown Homelessness Taskforce |
The Taskforce has achieved many effective initiatives that have contributed to Jacksonville’s continued reduction in the annual point-in-time count. |
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Jacksonville Housing Partnership (JHP) |
An outcome of the JHP includes the launch of the Jacksonville Community Land Trust to support the goal of increasing affordable housing solutions. |
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In response to the pandemic, the Office was able to rapidly activate and launch COVID-19 focused collaborations, including the COVID-19 Shelter Taskforce, COVID-19 Food Delivery Taskforce, and the COVID-19 Eviction and Foreclosure Focused Roundtable. |
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The First Lady Molly Curry Educational Art Legacy Project is a community education program that features an interactive, survivor-inspired mosaic and mural art installation that shares the story of a survivor’s path to healing from human trafficking. |
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“The Office of Strategic Partnerships has been essential to our work providing housing and healthcare to people who are homeless in Jacksonville,” said Cindy Funkhouser, President and CEO of the Sulzbacher Center. “Through COVID, hurricanes, downtown development and more, Dawn Lockhart has helped connect us with resources and align our efforts with others’ to improve the quality of the services provided by the nonprofit sector.”
“Philanthropy’s most important role is to pilot innovative approaches that we can prove and then partner with the public sector, which has many more resources, to implement and scale,” said Katie Ensign, Vice President of Community Investment and Impact at Baptist Health. “That’s exactly what happened with the Office of Strategic Partnerships, and I applaud the City of Jacksonville for embracing a new model that is now receiving well-deserved national attention.”
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