Community Connector Services
A Menu of Support Options
Every option in this menu has been:
Community Connector Catalyzed: piloted with multiple partners, refined through community feedback, and successfully adopted into partners’ ongoing practices.
Rural Community Builder Tested: designed to build trust in rural communities navigating long-standing, complex challenges.
Rural Community Approved: feedback and data show sustained or increased participation, especially among those who have historically been disconnected from each other.
Café Resource Model
Your community may be hungry for this if…
- Existing events are under-attended or not reaching the people they’re meant to serve.
- Multiple organizations are working hard but separately, duplicating efforts and stretching limited resources.
- You’re looking for a simple, low-cost way to boost engagement without starting something brand new from scratch.
Audiences: Community members and the organizations that serve them, especially those working to make their existing events more inclusive and engaging.
Why it works: Small adjustments to existing events encourage participation and help organizers adapt to changing community needs, building long-term engagement that benefits everyone.
What it is: A community engagement booster that unites organizations around fewer, more impactful events, saving time and resources for both organizations and the communities they serve.
Examples: Lincoln County Café Resource Series, Café Aquarium
Event Passport
Your community may be hungry for this if…
- You lead or collaborate on events but aren’t sure if they’re actually reaching or resonating with attendees.
- You’d like to gather useful information about your engagement efforts without collecting personal or sensitive data.
- You’re looking for a fun, low-pressure way to encourage community members and organizations to interact at events.
Audiences: Organizations that lead collaborative events and are working to better engage, understand, and serve both their partners and community attendees.
Why it works: Small adjustments to existing events encourage meaningful interactions between organizations and community members, while gathering engagement data that protects attendee privacy, with no names or sensitive details required.
What it is: An evaluation tool for organizations that doubles as an incentive for community participation and engagement.
Examples: Café Aquarium Passport, Mobile Health Clinic Passport
Regional Workshop Series
Your community may be hungry for this if…
- Your region is facing a complex, long-term challenge that no single organization or sector can solve alone.
- Leaders and organizations are working in silos, with little opportunity to share what they’re learning or collaborate across differences.
- You’re looking for a structured, recurring space where diverse voices, even historically opposed voices, can build understanding and work toward shared solutions.
Audiences: Organizations and communities working toward long-term goals that no single entity can accomplish alone.
Why it works: Focusing on a shared, complex challenge breaks down silos by bringing together multiple sectors, a wide range of perspectives (including historically opposed viewpoints), and builds understanding and trust around topics that affect everyone.
What it is: A recurring regional workshop open to anyone affected by or working on the topic. Together, community members, leaders, organizations, and support networks share lessons learned and collaborate on long-term, community-improving efforts.
Examples: Drinking Water Protection Workshops along the North, Central, and South Oregon Coast
Collaborative Ecosystem Building and Maintenance
Your community may be hungry for this if…
- Your network is eager to collaborate but struggles to keep track of who is doing what, what resources already exist, and where the gaps are.
- Organizations and community members are working toward similar goals but aren’t consistently connected or updated on each other’s capacities.
- You’re looking for a simple, customized way to stay connected that works with how your network already meets and communicates.
Audiences: Organizations, businesses, and community members who are eager to collaborate but stretched too thin to keep up with what resources and capacity already exist in their networks.
Why it works: Networks use this approach to quickly identify and update their shared interests and capacities, making it easier to discover and build partnerships around common goals.
What it is: A customized, easy-to-update information sharing system built around how networks already meet and the technology they already use.
Examples: Cape Perpetua Collaborative Pilot Project, Lincoln County Local Woods
Collaborative Meeting Facilitation
Your community may be hungry for this if…
- Your collaborative has the right people and shared goals, but meetings are inconsistent, unproductive, or simply not happening.
- No single organization has the capacity or the neutral standing to serve as the group’s convener.
- You’re looking for support getting a collaboration off the ground and running smoothly, with the long-term goal of leading it yourselves.
Audiences: Organizations, businesses, and community members working together on long-term, complex challenges that no single entity can address alone.
Why it works: Sometimes a collaborative effort just needs someone to schedule, convene, and facilitate productive recurring meetings for a community ecosystem to thrive.
What it is: A coaching and training process that helps conveners build, adapt, and sustain their own long-term collaboration networks.
Examples: Rural Community Builders Collective, Juntos en Colaboración
Land Action Portal
Your community may be hungry for this if…
- You want to go beyond Land Acknowledgments but aren’t sure how to take meaningful action without causing additional harm.
- You’re looking for a trustworthy, Tribe-approved starting point for learning, engaging, and taking action.
- You want to support a Tribe in ways that are actually helpful, guided directly by the Tribe itself.
Audiences: Well-meaning non-Tribal folks who want to go beyond Land Acknowledgements without adding burdens or additional harm, and the Tribes they want to support.
Why it works: A one-stop site featuring links to history, calls to action, and public information and events that a Tribe chooses to share, so non-Tribal folks learn directly from the source how they can best show up in support.
What it is: A simple website that narrows the gap between intentions and outcomes in ways that Land Acknowledgements alone cannot.
Example: Take Action Lincoln County
Exploration Conversation
Your community may be hungry for this if…
- You’re facing a community challenge but aren’t sure which direction to take or where to start.
- None of the options in this menu feel like a perfect fit, or you’re not sure which combination might work best for your situation.
- You’re curious, open to exploring, and ready to chart a new course — even if the destination isn’t clear yet.
Audience: Anyone navigating their community’s uncharted territories, from historical divides to systems that aren’t working for everyone involved.
Why it works: Rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution, this approach creates or adapts existing recipes for community-building success, meeting your community where it is and charting a course forward together.
What it is: A no-commitment starter conversation that can illuminate new horizons, whether customizing existing menu options or co-developing a brand new pilot project tailored to your community’s unique situation.
Example: Every option above was created after Exploration Conversations.