Our team spent some time in December planning ways that we could be more efficient and organized in order to serve Ogallala Commons and our region more effectively. We wanted to start 2014 by remembering our mission and purpose and sharing it with those of you who might not be as familiar with Ogallala Commons.
Ogallala Commons was founded in 1999 to serve as a resource development network for reinvigorating the depleted commonwealth in the High Plains region of the Great Plains. Our desire was to be instrumental in restoring health and wealth to the communities that make up the OC region, and to engage and support local people who are making an effort to re-vision and redevelop their communities.
As we have grown and evolved, we have always stayed true to this mission and valu
es. We’ve continued to serve our region using the same four-part methodology that we created with our vision:
- Working to weave together and organize a collaborative resource network that focuses on the Great Plains region. This network, woven between renewal organizations, as well as among individual innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders, will promote widespread ownership and participation in local communities.
- Working to build an educational outreach, a framework for ideas and knowledge templates, in the form of conferences and seminars that ask key questions, offer practical knowledge and resources, and address structural revitalization needs in the High Plains area.
- Fostering a sense of place in the High Plains, based on the promotion and celebration of community arts, regional cultures, and local histories.
- Providing leadership to re-vitalize resilient communities across the Great Plains region by reinvesting in the 12 aspects of commonwealth, the source of sustainable wealth generated from the resource base rather than rigid dependence on governmental or multinational sources.
Though our mission, methodology, and values have remained the same, we are learning more every day about ways we can serve the High Plains better. We’ve begun to employ the use of a website and social media, we’ve engaged with tools that help our contractors stay more connected and efficient, we’ve added people to our team whose strengths lie in entrepreneurship and collaboration, and we’ve sought out more opportunities to connect our interns with internships that will prepare them for the future.
