Questions and commitments

||| FROM LINDSAY JENNINGS for ORCAS ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION |||

Earlier this week, at our National Nonprofit Day program, Eric Liu spoke about the role and importance of civic culture. He shared how it is rooted in community, on the ground, with groups of 5, 10, or 20 people showing up, deciding: how do we live together? Culture is shaped and reshaped every day with decisions large and small. It’s a participatory process that is made better by more people joining together. It’s made better by creating accessible, inclusive spaces for community dialogue and decision making. 

One of the most impactful moments of the afternoon was when we collectively took a full minute to reflect on what we, individually, will commit to. How will we show up? How will we understand and share our power and resources for good? How will we help each other, so we can all be better off?

While you ponder these questions, stay tuned for the full video-recording of the program. We also plan to have a generous number of copies of Eric Liu’s upcoming book, Live Like a Citizen: 8 Ways to Change Your Mindset and Our Country, available in late October, so we can continue to learn and shape a strong civic culture on Orcas Island together.

Over the last several months as OICF has increased our engagement with the Pea Patch Community Campus campaign, a number of questions have arisen, from my own curiosity, OICF trustees, and from community members we’ve spoken to about the project. Questions like how many people will the Food Bank be able to serve in its new building and how is it planning for operational changes? What level of support services will be provided to the residents of the low income housing? What portions of the project can move forward with the $32M+ that has been secured to date? What is the building cost per square foot?

With a development project of this size and complexity, it’s a challenge, and also important, to keep stakeholders up to date as plans evolve and costs change. The campaign team has developed a new info packet which provides overview and update on the project, with answers to many questions that you may also be wondering about. The campaign website and the recent in-depth Q&A interview with Bob Morris about the Food Bank building design is also an excellent source of information about the project. 

I encourage you to take a look at these resources, and get in touch if you would like to learn more, or have additional questions.

Our next program for the nonprofit community is a Federal Grants Workshop on September 29, provided by the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Federal Funds Grant Writing Assistance Program (FFGWAP) and co-hosted with the Economic Development Council of San Juan County. More details are below. 

Happy back-to-school week to all!