The pilot year of Community Powered kicked off in June of 2022 and wrapped up on May 31, 2023. Our fantastic CPPCs finished their work strong, wrapping up our busiest month yet while also creating final reports and sharing guides with their community about how to run some of the events and projects they completed throughout the pilot year.

Rachel has spent her year in the pilot writing amazing blog posts about her CP process, finishing with a series on how to do community-powered projects that is a must read. Meanwhile, Emily has created a page on the Spooner Memorial Library website that showcases her work, including online exhibits of her History Harvests, links to her veterans’ oral histories, and reports on her other events. Anthony’s LGBTQIA+ Asset Map is live and already being used by community members. Sapatis, meanwhile, continues to share lacrosse sticks and conduct lacrosse demonstrations in schools and around the state.

On May 19th and 20th, we welcomed the CPPCs and Co-Directors to our Madison office for a retreat. We gathered to process our experiences together, think about what we learned from our work this past year, and celebrate our hard work. Over the course of the weekend, we talked about our transformative moments, discussed what we thought the Community Powered process was, and drafted stories about what was most memorable from our pilot year. Chrissy, one of the two Co-Directors, interviewed all of the CPPCs about their experience. We also got a chance to practice with Sapatis’ lacrosse sticks! It was wonderful to spend time together as our pilot year comes to a close, but hard to say goodbye when we parted.

This year has been invigorating for all of us. All pilot years are a journey into the unknown. But we learned an incredible amount about community-led project work and honed a process that we’re excited to bring forward in new communities in a future. While we’re sad to say goodbye to Rachel, Emily, Anthony, and Sapatis, they have made an indelible mark on Community Powered and made a real difference in their community. A big round of applause for all their hard work this past year!