Multiple city-wide organizations involved in supporting children and families have announced they will be partnering in the city’s first unified five-year planning process for Alexandria.
ACPS will be working with the Alexandria Health Department, Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria and the City of Alexandria’s Department of Community and Human Services — responsible for The Children and Youth Master Plan — in a single planning process for 2025 that will work for the entire city.
This is the first time that there has been collaboration by numerous groups across the city in the development of aligned plans that will impact all Alexandrians.
The partners are taking advantage of the fact that this year, the timing of the Alexandria City Public Schools’ strategic planning, the Department of Community and Human Services’ Children and Youth Master Plan, and the Alexandria Health Department and the Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria’s Community Health Improvement Plan, happen to coincide. To date, each has developed their own planning process, conducted their own community engagement and communication and worked to their own timeline.
By working together as partners, the parties see the added value each can bring to fulfill this commitment. By aligning the work of these three critical plans it will be possible to maximize our collective community engagement, utilize and focus on the most important data, and be galvanized to focus on our shared outcomes,” the partnership agreement states.
Tackling equity issues will be at the heart of the project which aims to highlight gaps and systems negatively impacting sectors of the Alexandria community. Once these are identified, each of the partners will be able to better serve the community.
By aligning five-year planning across the city, the aim is to create the conditions needed for all Alexandrians to thrive, with an emphasis on ensuring that race does not determine quality of life, opportunities and outcomes.
The partners will collaborate in the areas of community engagement, shared data and resources, and aligned strategies. The joint approach uses developmental assets and a trauma-informed lens to develop shared solutions.
2025 Strategic Planning for Alexandria City Public Schools
ACPS is in the process of developing its mission, vision and goals for its next strategic plan for 2025 in collaboration with a 2025 Strategic Planning Committee made up of ACPS staff, students and community leaders who represent the diversity of our city, and FourPoint, consultants specializing in strategic planning. The process will also involve community-wide focus groups and a community engagement process. The School Board will adopt the new plan in the spring of 2020.
The Children and Youth and Master Plan
The Children and Youth Master Plan (CYMP) is a blueprint to improve outcomes for children, youth and families who call Alexandria their home. The current version of the plan encompasses these goals:
- Every child will be physically safe and healthy.
- Every child will be academically successful and career-ready.
- Every child will be socially connected, emotionally secure and culturally competent.
- Every family will be equipped and empowered to support the well-being of their children.
- Alexandria’s systems and institutions will be responsive, coordinated, efficient and effective in service to children and families.
The Community Health Improvement Plan
Alexandria Health Department and the Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria invite all community members (those who live, work, and play in Alexandria) to build the City’s five-year Community Health Improvement Plan. Community members will decide Alexandria’s health priorities and solutions during public workshops this fall. The first workshop is October 5 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Minnie Howard Campus of T.C. Williams High School. The final plan will be released in early 2020. Learn more at alexandriava.gov/Health.