Value of Prevention? Or Value of Collaboration?
The organization for which I work is currently requesting an increase in funding from our county government. In hopes of strengthening our chances of getting that increase in funding, we did a rather involved presentation for our county commissioners, describing all of the many activities and events we sponsor and how such activities and events make their job of governing more efficient and effective.
One of the points we tried to bring home was the value of prevention of problems. Our argument was that if the commissioners are charged with the task of making policy on certain issues, our educational outreach efforts reduce the need for enforcement of their policies. To us this makes sense, because even if you have the money to enforce a law/policy, once it has been broken you cannot undo the damage that has been caused. You can only punish those who caused it and try to make sure it doesn't happen again. Prevention, on the other hand, allows you to not only save the money that would otherwise have to be spent on "catching" policy breakers, punishing them, and monitoring them to avoid repeat offenses -- but it also allows you to avoid the damage caused by such offenses in the first place.
So far, their response has not been encouraging. We won't know our final funding amounts until Monday, but it doesn't sound like we should expect much. The main reason? The state mandates that they provide "public safety" in the form of a maximally staffed sheriff's department. It does not mandate that they provide "public safety" in the form of prevention.
The interesting point for me, comes with the thought that we are in essence competing with people's fears. And against such a basic element of the human psyche, we will never win. However, if we strengthen our relationship with those in law enforcement, beginning from a point of understanding why the public feels such fear, we have the potential of becoming collaborators with law enforcement. Through a relationship with the department that doesn't see our value, we can begin to establish our role of support for their basic mission - a public that not only feels safe, but IS safe because it has informed and interconnected itself.
Part of our challenge, I believe, is in reframing ourselves as a community organization that invests in all aspects of our environment - social, economic, and natural. Until we deeply acknowledge that personal safety is perceived as a more basic human need than salmon population counts, we won't be able to strengthen either one -- even though they are actually interdependent.
Competition over funds is not going to get us anywhere. Collaboration to uncover and meet basic community needs will.
One of the points we tried to bring home was the value of prevention of problems. Our argument was that if the commissioners are charged with the task of making policy on certain issues, our educational outreach efforts reduce the need for enforcement of their policies. To us this makes sense, because even if you have the money to enforce a law/policy, once it has been broken you cannot undo the damage that has been caused. You can only punish those who caused it and try to make sure it doesn't happen again. Prevention, on the other hand, allows you to not only save the money that would otherwise have to be spent on "catching" policy breakers, punishing them, and monitoring them to avoid repeat offenses -- but it also allows you to avoid the damage caused by such offenses in the first place.
So far, their response has not been encouraging. We won't know our final funding amounts until Monday, but it doesn't sound like we should expect much. The main reason? The state mandates that they provide "public safety" in the form of a maximally staffed sheriff's department. It does not mandate that they provide "public safety" in the form of prevention.
The interesting point for me, comes with the thought that we are in essence competing with people's fears. And against such a basic element of the human psyche, we will never win. However, if we strengthen our relationship with those in law enforcement, beginning from a point of understanding why the public feels such fear, we have the potential of becoming collaborators with law enforcement. Through a relationship with the department that doesn't see our value, we can begin to establish our role of support for their basic mission - a public that not only feels safe, but IS safe because it has informed and interconnected itself.
Part of our challenge, I believe, is in reframing ourselves as a community organization that invests in all aspects of our environment - social, economic, and natural. Until we deeply acknowledge that personal safety is perceived as a more basic human need than salmon population counts, we won't be able to strengthen either one -- even though they are actually interdependent.
Competition over funds is not going to get us anywhere. Collaboration to uncover and meet basic community needs will.
posted by Girl Outa Texas at 5:02 PM
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