Discovery Forum - Join Us - Tues, June 20th, 11:00am-1:30pm

Dear ninety-nine girlfriends,

Your girlfriends from our new Community Study Teams invite you to hear what we have learned about our five focus areas – arts & culture, education, environment family/human services, and health & wellness. We’re getting ready for our Discovery Forum, Tuesday June 20th 11:00-1:30 at the White Stag Block. And they are excited to share what we have learned with you!

While we all have been out  gardening, hiking, bicycling, avoiding rain, embracing rain, and chasing sunshine, a group of amazing women have been learning about our community in small study teams. A new element of ninety-nine girlfriends, the Community Study Teams are organized to provide our members with a grounding in the community issues that face our region. Co-chaired by Lisa Adatto and Deborah Edward, the teams have been interviewing local experts about what’s happening regarding arts & culture, education, family/human services, health & wellness and environment.

Our initial “discoveries” were based on looking at key questions posed by Chris Grumm. For each topic we asked:

·       What is the situation that needs change?

·       What is the change needed?

·       What strategies can make this happen?

·       What are the anticipated results?

·       What are the accelerators?

·       What inhibits the process?

Team members organized themselves and began to get familiar with the issues by reading reports, getting online, interviewing content experts and talking with the people affected by local issues. Two workshops with Chris helped us find ways to bring our information together to share with our membership. With help from Joyce White and Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington, we got more grounded in our community’s responses to challenges. With help from Victoria Trabosh, we are now organizing our learning into brief fun presentations to share with all of you at the June 20th Discovery Forum.  Our stories are to educate – we are not proscribing any direction for our grantmaking, and we’re not identifying the most urgent priorities or needs. We’re adding to our collective knowledge and respect for the people who continue to strengthen our community and face chronic and emerging issues. This will be especially useful to grant review team members to ground you in the issues at hand. Know that CST members will be available to help you with information as grantmaking gears up this summer.

Come hear what’s challenging and what’s working in our community as we learn together about the region. Discovery Forum is a chance to you to get more context about our issues, and see the landscape a bit more clearly.

Special thanks to our teams and their leaders:
Arts & Culture - Deborah Morley, Terri, Andra

Education – Gina Elise, Kat, Peggy , Laurie

Environment – Lisa, Katherine, Pam, Vicky

Family/Human services – Marnie, Emily Betty Jane

Health & Wellness – Tammy, Liz , Catherine

See you soon!

Deborah and Lisa