The Monument Community Partnership [MCP]
The Monument Community Partnership is a dynamic community collaborative that focuses on increasing the opportunities and well-being of children and families who live in the Monument Corridor, a low-income neighborhood in the heart of Concord, California. The MCP started as a way to engage stakeholders from the key sectors of the community to take a “big picture” look at the Monument Corridor, identify assets and needs that might otherwise be overlooked, and take action collaboratively to improve its services, institutions and infrastructure. What makes the MCP model truly unique, however, is the way in which it creates robust working relationships between residents of diverse ethnicities and the local government agencies, community-based organizations and businesses that serve them.

MCP’s model and accomplishments have begun to attract region-wide attention. In 2003, NAT facilitators and other Monument residents received the San Francisco Foundation’s Koshland Awards for their outstanding community leadership. The California Endowment’s Partnership for the Public’s Health and the Contra Costa First Five Commission are enthusiastic supporters.

MCP’s Neighborhood Action Teams
In collaboration with TEAMS: Transformation through Education and Mutual Support, the MCP has established an expanding “pipeline” of skilled resident leaders from Latino and Anglo communities using the Neighborhood Action Team [NAT] model. These teams of trained residents initiate and implement a wide range of community improvement projects themselves. In the process, they have become a vital resource to MCP’s partner agencies, helping to improve service delivery to the community.

TEAMS: Transformation through Education and Mutual Support
TEAMS addresses the entire range of social problems that affect low-income communities, with a unique approach that leads to effective, systemic change. Our work does not focus on community deficits or imported change. Instead, we think in terms of developing the capacity of low-income people to solve their own problems, and realize their own opportunities, through self-development and mutual support. This focus on cultivating community leadership includes assuring increased access to decision-making and resources, and the generation of financial capital. This is significantly different than advocating to improve a service delivery system that often subverts the capacity and resources of communities to effectively create their own solutions to systemic problems. The goal is to move people out of poverty, not just to make them more comfortable living in reduced circumstances.