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Nomination
for a First Annual Sustainability Award page 2 of 3
The success of this effort then
prompted the start of a larger process, which has culminated in the
"Volunteer to Sustain Cape Cod EXPO" to be held on April 14,
2004, at the Cape Codder hotel in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Sixty-five
nonprofit exhibitors have reserved all booth space, and we anticipate that
hundreds of volunteers of all ages will convene that day at the behest of
CapeCorps, a nonprofit organization launched by the Cape and Islands
United Way to encourage volunteerism and sustainability. The honorary
sponsors of the event are the Cape Cod Times newspaper and the Cape
Cod Five Cents Savings Bank. Many more corporate sponsors have
underwritten the costs for the day. Information about the event and the
outcomes it desires can be read at www.CapeCorps.org.
I mention these activities to suggest that the action that triggered them
was taken by the Sustainability Indicators Council. Without their
work to shape amorphous concepts of sustainability into concrete measures
and specific action steps, these subsequent events would not be happening
in the positive and connecting ways that they are.
Cape Cod is a region of more than 1,100 nonprofit institutions serving
nearly 230,000 year-round residents and another nearly 500,000 visitors in
the summer months. These nonprofits perform work essential to the Cape's
economy, its environment, and its social welfare. The drastic population
swing between winter and summer poses unique problems to this effort that
place the managers of local nonprofits on an operational and
administrative roller coaster. The needs swell dramatically. The resources
and reserves ride similar waves. The Sustainability Indicators Report 2003 and the ongoing work of the SIC has defined the context in which these efforts take place. The report has brought together different perspectives and priorities in a less challenging and threatening way than sometimes occurs in the discussion or consideration of a specific community need.
Barnstable
County as the Repository for the
For any governing entity to be effective, the data, knowledge, and
information it assembles needs to be readily available and accessible to
residents of the community. In issuing its report, the SIC relied on
public information. Its efforts then demonstrated how to create
useful knowledge from it. The SIC report also suggests how to distribute
this knowledge to the community. And in doing so, the SIC both raised
knowledge capital and linked information sources in ways that are
triggering decisions and actions among the diverse sectors of our
community. The SIC's actions and its report serve as a model of how to effectively measure community performance and results. The SIC's work emphasized community participation in ways that lead to constructive input in policy making and problem solving. Facilitating the public's participation in these activities is essential to our governance. The bottom line in the public sector is that citizens and government can be more effective and can better serve their communities by working collaboratively to identify goals and to measure and manage performance. (Application continues.) - 2 - |
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