Will Your Vision Stand Up to Resistance and Mockery?

L-R Chief Todd King, Springettsbury Township PD, Chief Timothy Damon, York County Regional PD, Captain Daniel Lentz, York City PD

Vision gives birth to the ideas that eventually transform communities. These ideas initially seem unrealistic, complicated, or even impossible.

One of the clearest examples of this in our work was the creation of the York County SafetyCollab, a collaborative public safety initiative that began with a simple but bold vision for what could happen if police departments across York County worked together collaboratively instead of separately.

The following is a direct excerpt from my book, Unlikely Good, sharing the story of how the York County SafetyCollab was born:

For several years, Chief Swartz had been dreaming with a retired police chief about the concept of establishing a police foundation to support all York County police departments. This would have been an innovative idea, as each department was individually funded by its respective township or borough. There was no uniformity in funding, which meant departments had access to different levels of equipment and training. At least ten departments in the county did not use, and could not afford, body cameras that create police transparency. In addition, our county police departments often competed with one another for local, state, and federal grants and philanthropic funding.

Otto Monroy was then vice president of Logos Academy’s fundraising efforts and the president of our social enterprise arm, LogosWorks. Otto and I were shocked when we discovered the ways local police were competing with one another. We were convinced that if local police collaborated on funding, they would collectively raise more money to support positive community policing.

Additionally, the mission of our Chiefs and Clergy Partnership was to foster relationships of trust between the police and the community. It was outside the scope of that partnership to determine how to assist local police in collaboratively generating funds that would improve community relations. We would need a different structure to advance this work.

And so we began a discussion with Chief Swartz about his idea for the police foundation. Within a couple of conversations, we generated a bold idea called the York County SafetyCollab.

Our vision was simple: “Safer Together.” York County could be much safer and vibrant if we helped our eighteen police departments collaborate. We were not going to attempt to orchestrate a political regionalization effort. Instead, we would bring all county police departments, the York County Sheriff’s department, and the York County District Attorney’s office into a collective impact agreement modeled after a collective impact backbone structure. Our goal was to work collaboratively to fund equipment and training, build goodwill with the public, thereby improving community relations and fostering greater trust and transparency.

The team at LogosWorks would leverage our network of community relationships and nonprofit experience to serve as the backbone organization. We would function as the fiscal sponsor, oversee the coordination of efforts, raise philanthropic support, and work to generate public support for this new collaboration.

It was a fresh vision in a county where collaboration among police departments was limited.

Someone once said that if people don’t laugh at your vision, it's not big enough. And we indeed did have people laugh at the idea that our local police would collaborate with one another instead of continuing to defend their own turf.

I still recall when our then-County District Attorney, Dave Sunday, expressed skepticism about the prospect of creating such a collaboration. His office was eager to support the work. Dave went on to become Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, running on a platform that supported numerous community initiatives, including the Chiefs and Clergy Partnership and the York County SafetyCollab, which brought innovative solutions to complex law enforcement matters. Dave’s skepticism toward the creation of the York County SafetyCollab was justified. We would need eighteen different township and borough solicitors to sign off on their department’s willingness to participate.

Over the next few months, Otto Monroy and I worked with our local police chiefs to persuade township supervisors and their legal solicitors to sign off on this new partnership. I can’t reiterate enough how challenging it can be to get local townships to cooperate with one another.

Solicitors asked numerous legal questions. Township supervisors expressed skepticism that any benefit would reach their local departments. Others questioned whether our motives were pure or if there was some hidden agenda.

Due to the relationships and trust we had developed with the police chiefs, within a few short months of frequent meetings, we overcame objections, received the necessary signatures, and the York County SafetyCollab was born.

We quickly went to work to prove that our concept of collaboration would benefit everyone.

In a short period, we funded seventy-five body cameras for those ten police departments that did not have them and updated the equipment of other departments. We funded new DNA collection equipment for the county’s law enforcement center, which would help police solve crimes more quickly. Local foundations came together to fund our efforts to become the county’s collective impact backbone for public safety. This would entail bringing together law enforcement and other nonprofit partners focused on reducing violence, especially among youth.

In a short time, we successfully hired Dr. Jamie Noerpel as the director of the SafetyCollab. She has continued to build the work and expand its influence. She regularly holds community summits, bringing together local police and community agencies to tackle youth violence.

Early on, the York County Community Foundation funded the support of national collective impact expert Chris Thompson. Chris helped us better organize our efforts. He told us that the team at LogosWorks had become an “accidental backbone,” meaning we had earned the trust of the community to coordinate the effort.

We shortly thereafter secured two significant victories: a large de-escalation grant from the Department of Justice that would train all of York County’s police departments on the same techniques, and a highly competitive, multi-year Pennsylvania CCVI grant to reduce community violence.

A once-relationally complex problem was transformed into the York County SafetyCollab. It took George Swartz’s simple idea for a collaborative foundation and a bold vision to bring Unlikely Good to life.

That collaborative vision felt impossible to many to whom we suggested the idea. Many of the most meaningful initiatives begin with resistance, skepticism, unanswered questions, and perhaps even hostility.

Don’t give up when your vision is mocked, resisted, or tested. The problems in your community that are “unlikely to change” will require visionary solutions that will feel unlikely to survive. Press on!