The Kresge Foundation has awarded Step Up
Savannah $445,000 over a three-year period to strengthen the impact of the
collaborative and its partners through implementing better planning,
coordination, and evaluation tools.

An estimated $100,000 of the grant funds will
be used to provide mini-grants to Step Up partner
organizations that propose creative approaches to deliver and coordinate
services to those families most in need.

Using a results-based approach, Step Up will
focus initially on strengthening the Centers for Working Families, a network of
neighborhood-based direct service providers serving low-income families. Staff
from each participating organization will be trained in the process, which encourages
discussion about innovative ideas and strategies to move low-income families
toward self sufficiency.

A detailed work plan will be created by the
selected partners in 2012 after being trained in the results-based system,
including the targeted use of data to cooperatively set goals and strategies.
The network will identify and then agree upon specific, measureable goals
intended to reduce poverty, such as a set number of individuals obtaining GEDs
and completing job training programs.

“We know there is a great need to help move our
low-income families toward self sufficiency, but we also know that we have to
assist our partners build capacity and invest in work across organizational
boundaries,” said Daniel Dodd-Ramirez, executive director of Step Up. “With
more than a quarter of our population now living at or below the poverty level,
there is even greater urgency to try innovative approaches to serve those in
our high-poverty Census tracts.”