We’re setting goals & celebrating!
Greetings L'Arche Portland Family and Friends,
We have been busy since I last emailed the community on March 31st, and we have some wonderful updates to share. First and foremost, I'd like to apologize to those of you who have been left out of the loop. We realized recently that we have had some issues with our email server and listserv and have not been reaching all our community members. We have resolved these issues and are eager to get back in touch with you, our community friends who help make this wonderful organization possible.
As many of you know, in March the community began generating a new Community Mandate, a set of goals for the next five years, to help prioritize our efforts moving forward and inform the discernment of a new Community Leader. Many conversations were had with core members, house members, family members, assistants, and leadership staff to reflect on the last five years, the hardships of the pandemic, and the ways that we want to move forward and rebuild our community. On March 5th, we had community members, family, and friends come together for a Mandate Day to review several themes that emerged from conversations with the homes and staff. Following the Mandate Day, individuals completed a survey of reflections, hopes, and ideas for moving the community forward.
Information gathered from these conversations, events, and surveys were reviewed by a Mandate Discernment team consisting of Board members David Perry, Karen Danner, and myself; Daily Life members Therese, Annie Rose, E, Cindy, and Brendan; Community Friends Erin Weisensee, Lilia Teninty, Kim Bastable, and Fredericka Banks; and our L'Arche USA representative Lori Moore. Over the course of several meetings, the mandate discernment team met to review information and generate a draft Mandate that feels reflective of our current community needs and aspirations. Below are links to two versions of this mandate (one with illustrations from core members Annie Rose and Joni and one with plain text) for your review.
Although we have done our best to incorporate all the community and individual feedback we received, we'd like any last input prior to finalizing the mandate. The survey can be accessed at https://forms.gle/Cm7ThLMf3fUX54HM9. Feedback will be solicited until June 16th.
In addition to drafting our new Mandate, we have been busy searching and conducting interviews for a new Community Leader/Executive Director. With over 80 applicants, we had some excellent candidates apply for the position. A Community Leader Discernment team consisting of Philip Stanton, myself, Annie Rose, Therese, E, Lori Moore, and Kathy Jensen consulted with the homes and leadership team, and used the draft Mandate to help narrow our search. We are currently in the final stages of our discernment and will update the Community in the very near future.
So how does all this news come together? Well, after we have incorporated your feedback into the final mandate, we'd like to gather as much of our community together at Powell Park on Saturday, June 24th from noon to 2 to affirm and celebrate our new Community Mandate and new Community Leader. This is a very exciting time for our community and a chance for us all to re-engage after a very challenging and difficult last three years. We hope to see everyone there! More details will be shared in our Newsletter & website, but we wanted to get this on your calendar so that you save the date.
As a final note, we’d love to re-engage our old friends and bring in new friends as we enter this period of reemergence. If you are interested in receiving our Newsletter, Events, or Volunteer info, be sure to subscribe to updates! This Community is made possible by all of us together.
Thank you all for your participation in this Community!
Sincerely,
Andrew Davidson
Board President, L'Arche Portland
