Project Summary

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This project brings together a diverse group of people from the city of Olympia WA. The group will participate in community leadership training, reach out to the greater community for input on what's important to them and, as a community, take action on what the community thinks is important.

About me

I have lived in Olympia for over thirty years. I am currently working for a small non-profit. The Northwest Cooperative Development Center (NWCDC) supports economic development primarily through the cooperative business model. What I like about cooperatives is that they are democratic organizations that self govern. At NWCDC, I am an Organizational Development Specialist training groups in leadership development, group development, team building, board training, conflict and more. My passion is community development. My education is in Engineering and Applied Behavioral Science. This unique combination gives me a great perspective on understanding systems, especially human systems. Much of what we do is because that is what we know to do. To create change we not only need to bring in new information into a system but we also need to take action to do things differently. I have already given you a brief idea of what we hope to do in our community. We, myself and Rosalinda Noriega who work with at risk youth at Partners in Prevention Education (PIPE), have only begun talking about this process and have generated interest form some of the staff of the local United Way office, members of a local coalition of churches, and staff members of the Dispute Resolution Center and some of the at risk youth in town. This, of course, is just a few we have talked to so we could get an idea of interest. This grant would afford us the time make this project happen.