College Students Assisting Swannanoa Watershed Group
Author: Kevin Jones Issue: 2022-11-02
College Students Assisting Swannanoa Watershed Group
by Kevin Jones, with Peter Kaminski
Ten students from Warren Wilson College have been assigned to work with our Swannanoa Watershed “Doughnut Economics” group, which will expand our reach and effectiveness.
Together with two faculty members, they will be following our group's research into the social safety net and the gaps in the Swannanoa Watershed.
We have identified a group of high-functioning, collaborating, local nonprofit organizations, and we will be asking them these key questions:
- What is the main problem you're working on?
- What is the scope of the problem?
- What key roadblocks have you run into while working to solve the problem?
PETE: How do you find those high-functioning local collaborating nonprofits?
KEVIN: Find functioning collaboratives, and circle inward.
PETE: Say more?
KEVIN: We started by differentiating between nonprofits providing relief “in the moment*”* – diapers for parents with babies, home-delivered meals – and those working on long-term change – legal services, or providing infrastructure for homeless support groups. We get more leverage by helping the latter.
We then found that some of those long-term change nonprofits worked cooperatively together, with shared resources or infrastructure.
It can be hard for nonprofits to admit to themselves and their funders that they aren't good at everything. The ones who do, and work together with other nonprofits to overcome obstacles, are more collaborative, and more able to stay focused on their mission and accomplish their goals.
When we start identifying providers of shared resources, we can also ask them, “which other groups do you know who are really effective?”
That has allowed us to identify the groups who are mostly likely to collaborate with us, and able to get the most benefit towards their mission.
Related:
- Kevin Jones (author)
- 2022 (year)
- Topics: Economics and Finance, Tools and Platforms, Bioregionalism and Place-Based Practice