No Boundaries Coalition
“Meet-in-the-Middle” Strategic Planning
Honoring voice and balancing power to elevate organizational genius
About Our Client
No Boundaries Coalition is a resident-led organization dedicated to uniting across confines of race, class, and neighborhood to build a vibrant Central West Baltimore City. No Boundaries Coalition community includes everyone who lives, works, or worships in the neighborhoods of Sandtown, Druid Heights, Upton, Madison Park, Penn North, Reservoir Hill, and Bolton Hill.
Following our initial work together, No Boundaries Coalition hired VPI again for executive and team coaching to enhance their performance and accountability around their strategic plan.
The Brief
Picking Up the Pieces
We came to No Boundaries after a previous vendor had a false start with their strategic planning process. After an initial review of VPI Firm’s comprehensive proposal, the Executive Director approved a budget and scope of work for us to take over the project. We took inventory of the gaps from the vendor’s initial phase and pushed forward with a plan that leveraged the work they had already completed, not wasting any data or resources.
Our Role
Strategic Planning Consultant
The Approach
“Meet in the Middle” -- VPI Firm was able to leverage the expertise of the board & senior leadership with the deep knowledge of frontline operational staff and feedback from community stakeholders. This led to the creation of an approach that is neither top down nor bottom up — but a diverse and inclusive roadmap for greater impact.
We co-created a solution-oriented environment of authenticity and empowerment through a leadership retreat, staff one-on-ones, and a board-only meeting. We even reached out to the original founders of the organization for deeper historical context.
We rounded up the process by overlaying the anecdotal and program data with our organizational maturity assessment that evaluates growth and maturity capacity against 47 industry agnostic organizational development principles
Impact & Outcomes:
2-day retreat with staff and Board focused on in-depth planning and discovery
Via individual conversations, uncovered seemingly intangible parts of the organization, like spoken and unspoken organizational cultural habits
Reconnected with founding members to reground No Boundaries in its mission and values
A comprehensive strategic plan rooted in the history, effects across stakeholders and rigorous metrics and milestones
By the Numbers:
Employed community partner Youth as Resources to survey 100 young people and conduct focus groups with 46 young people to inform strategic planning.
Analyzed feedback and perception data from more than 60 community stakeholders
Hear from a participant:
“I feel gratitude and relief…”
“I’m appreciative of you [Candace] and Sequinta being able to hold this space for us and to challenge us as we challenge each other… helping us to look at these really big issues we’re addressing and how we can break them down so that it’s actionable and aligned with us and our community. I feel gratitude and relief that after this process I still feel excitement.
Sache’ Jones, Director of Health & Food Justice