About SCIP

The Community Foundation of Washington County and the United Way of Washington County are pleased to announce the formation of the Strategic Community Impact Plan (SCIP).  The goal of SCIP is to join efforts and identify and establish goals in the areas of people, families and community. 

SCIP builds upon the tremendous work done by the Hagerstown/Washington County Industrial Foundation (CHIEF) and their publication of the 2005 & 2007 Community Report Card (PDF) which compiled extensive statistical data for Washington County in areas ranging from demographics, education, health and culture. 

SCIP will update the original statistics identified by CHIEF, while establishing new community indicators, as defined by the SCIP Steering Committee.   Armed with this data and backed by a truly public, private and nonprofit collaboration, SCIP will establish community-wide goals and the resources to focus on those needs.

The SCIP Steering Committee consists of:  

  • Leah Gayman of the United Way of Washington County, MD
  • Brad Sell of the Community Foundation of Washington County MD
  • Stephanie Stone of the Community Partnership for Children and Families
  • Earl Stoner, Washington County Health Officer
  • Dick Phoebus of CHIEF
  • Rick Rock of the Washington County Mental Health Authority
  • Jim Kercheval, Washington County Commissioner
  • Penny Pittman, owner of Weaver’s in Hancock
  • Carolyn Brooks of C-Safe
  • William P. Young of the Fletcher Foundation.

SCIP will be a two-year process to identify and examine the many key human service, social and community issues affecting Washington County. Focus groups will be established in 2010 and charged with looking at the issues, prioritizing the most immediate concerns, and establishing specific, measurable indicators and attainable goals to improve the quality of life in Washington County. An IMPACT Council will be convened to select the strategies to improve these indicators over a three to five year period. Benchmarks will be established to measure the progress against these indicators.

Four guiding principles will steer SCIP as we move forward with this plan:

  1. Collaboration of agencies
  2. Leveraged resources
  3. Shared best practices
  4. Accountability in program selection and support

It is our hope that both private citizens and local organizations will become motivated to participate and help find ways to support this exciting effort.

SCIP will rely on eleven focus groups stemming from the nine vision statements (link to home page with vision statements) to analyze data, discuss challenges and make suggestions to the IMPACT Council.  These focus groups include:

People 

 Families

Community

Each Focus Group will be responsible for the following:

  • Analyzing data to develop proposed goals and strategies to bring about intended change in community conditions
  • Utilizing specific criteria to review the statistical indicators and evaluate the community in light of the focus area
  • Discussing and vote on goals for the focus group
  • Developing strategies to achieve those goals
  • Establishing indicators to be used to measure performance
  • Prioritizing the goals
  • Presenting proposed goals and strategies to the IMPACT Council for review and final approval

Additional duties and responsibilities:

  • Attending focus group meetings- typically once a month
  • Recommending additional statistical data for the specific focus group
  • Estimating the cost of the strategy for at least one year and up to five years
  • Being an advocate in all circumstances for the goals and objectives of SCIP

In setting the community-wide goals, the focus groups will use the following criteria:

  • Accomplishing this goal will significantly impact the quality of life in Washington County
  • Our community will care about this goal
  • Accomplishing this goal is possible, given the culture, resources, and politics of our community
  • The ability to impact this goal is measurable
  • It is possible to impact this goal within five years- However; it is the wishes of the IMPACT Council to have each focus group identify a goal that can be impacted within one year

HOW CAN YOU HELP? – If you are interested in participating in any of the focus groups, please contact the Community Foundation at 301.745.5210 or at cfwc@cfwcmd.org.