Friends of the Finland Community
Report date
January 2020
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
The year kicked off with some great momentum within the community. We set up a structure to provide guidance for the project and maintain momentum. We had 2 events that were structured to empower the community to drive priorities and the mission and vision of the project. We also had an event that kicked off starting projects within the community to build our local food chain. We had great attendance, 80 people at the opening session, and 50 people at the “work” session. Out of these events we identified four priority working areas - education, infrastructure, purchasing and producers. Within these focus areas we had 11 projects that were accepted.
To our surprise, as things started to gel, we encountered a turbulent time, miscommunication, feelings hurt, and the need for new roles and perspectives. It felt like things were breaking and needed to be “reset” in order to allow real progress to occur. Real communication, honesty, people taking their egos out of the equation, real soul searching about what steps and directions were needed and how important it is. After that, decisions were able to be made about real structure for the overall organization that will help us be who we want to be in order to do the work we know we need to do. Deciding together in a collective way, for the benefit of the community and the Food Chain project, is in refocus now. We are still working, as a community now, on putting the pieces back together. We can see a way forward and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Key lessons learned
Yes, it felt quite a bit like failure. We learned that the overall organization did not have the structure in place to support a project of this size and scope, so we have spent the year fixing issues within the organization and building our capacity to better carry this (and hopefully many future projects) forward.
We started out this project strong with good community momentum. However, about four months in the momentum began to slow down. People’s availability within the project as well as roles within the community had changed. We recognized that we had to find a solution that would provide the support and coordination that was necessary for the different projects to succeed. We re-evaluated the roles that we had created within the project that would sustain the work of the project. The reflection led us to creating some new - paid positions within the project to coordinate and support the different focus areas.
We started out this project strong with good community momentum. However, about four months in the momentum began to slow down. People’s availability within the project as well as roles within the community had changed. We recognized that we had to find a solution that would provide the support and coordination that was necessary for the different projects to succeed. We re-evaluated the roles that we had created within the project that would sustain the work of the project. The reflection led us to creating some new - paid positions within the project to coordinate and support the different focus areas.
Reflections on inclusive, collaborative or resourceful problem-solving
The progress that has been made, both bigger picture for the organization and for the project itself, has all happened because of our community’s resourcefulness most of all. We have run into many stumbling blocks already with this work and we manage to keep going, despite the difficulties. We are willing to learn and adapt and keep trying to figure things out. We have dealt with leadership issues, and we’ve managed to get some work done nonetheless. We have had lack of momentum, and we’ve gone back to the drawing board to figure out a way to address it. We actually have not been as inclusive and collaborative with the actual project as we originally hoped and planned, but we’ve done more in that regard with the overall organization, and plan to continue. We plan for more inclusivity and collaboration in the future for the project itself. We will get there.
Other key elements of Community Innovation
Sometimes things need to get really bad in order to truly evaluate what’s important. No one changes unless they have a crowbar where the sun doesn’t shine. And sometimes you need new eyes to help you see your own patterns.
Understanding the problem
One thing that stands out is our ability to dream big. Creating a sustainable food system is a very complex task that requires engaged involvement from lots of players with different interests, skills and roles within the community. Identifying places to start and the systems that need to be in place to ensure success is a process. After the first year, we have identified priorities, addressed some of the gaps that we see and are working hard to make this big aspirational process digestible and successful. We have also been able to build capacity within our community - developing skills that will serve us in our work as we move forward but also in other areas of our community development work.
If you could do it all over again...
Real work is hard. It is personal. It is spiritual. It is raw and uncomfortable. Breathe. Be patient. It will get better. Take care not to break the structures in your community that support your work, even if they are inadequate for the task currently at hand. One day at a time. One foot in front of the other. Remember that you love each other, and treat each other that way, even if you disagree. And being really clear on roles and responsibilities never hurts either.