Greetings on this day of commemoration and reflection.
As R3V’s facilitator, I wanted to update you on where we are and where we’re going.
First, to acknowledge the one year anniversary of the Almeda fire that tore through our communities. The ash that fell overnight reminds us that we’re still connected to our neighbors who are experiencing fires today. We learn from others and share what we learn together in this process. We are part of an extended community learning to live with and recover from wildfire.
I hope you will be able to take a few moments to acknowledge the meaning of this day in your own life and in the life of our community. Christine Hunter-Robertson of WinterSpring offers a lovely approach to commemoration here.
As we enter the second year of our recovery, we’re strengthening our foundations and accelerating towards fulfilling our mission of community transformation.
Foundations
- Meeting changes to support action – Steering committee now meets twice per month and our larger Collective Impact meetings will be once per month. We will add working group meetings throughout each month to focus on collaborative projects we can all align with and contribute to.
- Team to extend our reach – our partnership with Local Innovation Works has added project coordination, research, and outreach capacity to the R3V cause. Thank you to Rogue Workforce Partnership for making this possible!
- Zone Captains – we have supported the cross-sector discussions required to help fund this program, which features peer-to-peer support networks, 21 paid positions to help with the JCC LTRG needs assessment and Disaster Case Management processes, and the centering of the voices of fire affected people. Final signatures happened this week. Watch your inbox for much more on this in the coming days.
- Health – the past few weeks have been hugely challenging for me, but the foundation of my health has returned and I am excited to breathe freely and support the community’s work. It wasn’t Covid-19, but it was something terrible that left me fighting to get enough oxygen for weeks. Everyone please be very careful with your health these smoky, infectious days.
Directions
- Community Rebuilding Working Group – help support the Zone Captains program as it launches, share your thoughts on addressing Collective Trauma as a root cause in our Valley, explore how we might support place making in direct housing at hotels and FEMA trailer parks.
- Housing Working Group – we’re working in collaboration with and support of Julie O’Dwyer and the LTRG Housing and Construction Group on a number of projects. Our initial focus will be on land availability for working family housing, ADUs and home share promotion, and alternative ownership models like community land trusts and cooperative housing. Our meeting this week conflicts with the LTRG large meeting, but we will find a better time for coming meetings. What works best for you?
- Please join us to learn more and share your ideas for these working groups.
- Once we have the Housing and Community Rebuilding working groups established, we will turn our focus to launching our next two working groups, Resilient Public Infrastructure and Economy and Jobs. You can express your interest in joining any of the working groups via this form. We would love to work with you!
Looking Forward
I look forward to connecting with you to learn about your vision for what’s needed and how R3V can support the good work you are doing. Please find a time on my calendar to connect, I’d love to learn more about you, your work, and your vision for what’s needed in our fair valley.
Stephen Sloan, R3V Facilitator
