Pacifica Resource Center
Project: Strategic Planning
About Pacifica Resource Center:
Pacifica Resource Center (PRC) is a local, community-based organization founded in 1974. It is the go-to organization in Pacifica for individuals seeking assistance to maintain their housing, acquire groceries and basic needs, and access social and other financial supports. PRC’s holistic, non-judgmental, practical, and flexible approach emphasizes supporting the people they serve to achieve long-term economic security and stability.
Why Pacifica Resource Center partnered with Lyons-Newman Consulting:
The pandemic caused an increased need for PRC’s services. The community was also experiencing mounting tensions over houselessness, including acts of unkindness and frustration toward unhoused people and the Pacifica Resource Center. PRC wanted to understand which programs to expand, retract, stop, or start; their role in leading the community to compassionately respond to vulnerable neighbors; and also how they could better center diversity, equity, and inclusion in their programs and organization.
Adults standing in small groups and talking outside
The process:
We first collaborated with PRC’s strategic planning committee to understand the organization’s identity and also to co-design our research plan.Then, we collected feedback from the staff and board through a survey and conducted interviews with PRC’s clients and external informants to assess PRC’s current state and its strategic positioning and to understand what constituents most want from PRC. With the full staff and board, we facilitated a retreat to strengthen the team, explore PRC’s options, and make decisions on strategic priorities based on research findings. The committee then refined these decisions to create PRC’s strategic plan.
The results:
PRC’s three-year strategic plan articulates their strategic positioning, values, and diversity, equity, and inclusion principles. It commits the organization to goals that the board and staff are aligned on and driven to implement together, including to:
• Educate community leaders and raise awareness about and compassion toward vulnerable community members.
• Extend PRC’s reach in the community to serve 25% more people/households who need their services, and partner with local schools to provide a safe place where people served by PRC can explore all their viable options.
• Develop new programs that respond to community needs.
• Strengthen PRC’s networks and establish new and deepened partnerships with local government, other community service organizations, and community leaders.