There are some pretty famous bridges in Madison County that have enjoyed the Hollywood spotlight for decades, but the bridges important to Sarah Downard are the ones that connect her neighbors to paths of success.
Downard, who lives in neighboring Warren County, is the newly-hired coordinator for Thrive Iowa of Warren and Madison Counties.
“I'm really looking forward to creating a community that really wraps around their families in need,” Downard said at her office in downtown Indianola, a 30-minute drive from Des Moines. Her window overlooks the Warren County Justice Center across Buxton Street, offering her a view of the daily ins and outs of Warren County residents, some of whom are struggling with hardships. Downard is hopeful that the new Thrive Iowa initiative can help her exhausted neighbors in need find the proper resources to get them on track to stability.
I'm really looking forward to creating a community that really wraps around their families in need.
Sarah Downard
“The Thrive Iowa initiative is designed to build networks of navigators and partners and volunteers who hope to help Iowans find immediate support and then stay with them to build individualized plans for long term stability and careers,” Downard said.
Downard has already been working hard, reaching out to local organizations and the faith-based community to form networking relationships.
“It's going to be a diving board for me personally to be able to launch into making good relationships with collaborators in our community,” Downard said. “We've established so many already with the programs that we already have locally.”
For many Iowans, seeking help is a vulnerable and uncomfortable experience.
Downard and the statewide Thrive Iowa team are hopeful that with the implementation of software and online access, the procedure will be less cumbersome.
“We use a secure system called Hope Hub, so nonprofits, employers, faith groups, governments and neighbors can coordinate care across 13 areas,” Downard said. “Things like housing, recovery, employment, childcare, and legal help. We listen to local leaders and people with lived experiences."
Downard said the collective goal is to work together until families are thriving.
Hope Hub, a secure database accessible to local service providers, allows providers to create a detailed support plan for families in their specific areas of crisis. Personal information is strictly confidential and HIPAA compliant.
Warren and Madison Counties are two of 11 Iowa counties that are participating in the Thrive Iowa initiative.
Thrive Iowa State Director Page Humphrey said the goal is to eventually reach all 99 counties in Iowa, but the program is starting with communities that were determined to be high priority.
“The sites that we’re implementing early on are prioritized based on need,” Humphrey told a gathering in Fort Madison recently. “Factors like the number of children in foster care, families living in poverty, and unemployment rates.”
Thrive Iowa uses the Arkansas-based Restore Hope model. Restore Hope is a nonprofit organization that began more than 10 years ago to help bring families from crises to stability.
Paul Chapman, executive director of Restore Hope, recently spoke with community leaders in Warren and Madison County during a collective impact meeting.
“Collective impact is a structured way for government and community groups to work toward the same outcomes using shared data and measuring outcomes,” Chapman said.
Chapman started Restore Hope in 2015 with the help of then-Governor Asa Hutchinson as Arkansas was faced with an alarming crisis among young families and high incarceration rates. Through local partnerships, a ‘for the community by the community’ approach, Arkansas communities were able to provide targeted support and guidance to families in need of assistance in the areas that affected them most.
“This is work for the community, by the community,” Downard said, adding that she’s excited for the day the community she’s helped foster can start seeing their efforts pay off.
“And we can celebrate and rejoice in all of their success stories,” Downard said.
Smart Justice is a magazine, podcast, and continuing news coverage from the nonprofit Restore Hope and covers the pursuit of better outcomes on justice system-related issues, such as child welfare, incarceration, and juvenile justice. Our coverage is solutions-oriented, focusing on the innovative ways in which communities are solving issues and the lessons that have been learned as a result of successes and challenges.
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