Staff Helping Our People with Environmental Sustainability (HOPES) is a Climate Action Newsletter series, where I sit down with my West Central Initiative peers to discuss the high-impact climate action work they do across our region. Over a hot cup of coffee, we talk through how their work impacts the health of our pine-and-prairie home.
West Central Initiative has been leading community conversations on resiliency since before the pandemic, Rebecca Petersen, Director of Development, told me at our office in Fergus Falls. In 2019, Petersen and President Anna Wasescha began using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a north star for the organization’s economic development and philanthropy work.
No poverty. Zero hunger. Good health and well-being. Quality education. Gender equality. Clean water and sanitation. Affordable and clean energy. Decent work and economic growth. Industry, innovation, and infrastructure. Reduced inequalities. Sustainable cities and communities. Responsible consumption and production. Climate action. Life below water. Life on land. Peace, justice, and strong institutions. Partnerships for the goals.
Are these not things all people can get behind?
When reflecting on how her work has a positive climate impact, Petersen began by taking me back four years, when West Central Initiative began aligning its work with the SDGs. “In 2019, we started presenting our strategic framework that included the SDGs at city council and county commission meetings. We present every year to a similar group of people,” said Petersen. “Over the years, the more we talk about climate, the more normalized it has become as peoples’ attitudes have changed, and they want to do more for their communities.”
2020, when the pandemic began spreading across the United States, is the year West Central Initiative launched its Resiliency Fund, now evolving to Resilient Communities Grants. The first year, the organization distributed $280,000 to organizations helping those who needed essentials, including food and shelter.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, West Central Initiative has distributed approximately $1 million in Resiliency Fund Grants, with funding transitioning from pandemic response to strengthening our region specific to sustainability and racial equity.
“Resiliency is something we’ve professed in our region forever, even pre-pandemic when we were responding to the Farm Crisis in the 1980s,” Petersen said. “That was why the McKnight Foundation first created the six initiative foundations in 1986. We continue to respond to emergencies to make our region more resilient, and the one we really need to pay attention to now is climate change.”
About the Author
Benjamin Velani is the Lead for America Climate Fellow and serving AmeriCorps member at West Central Initiative. He recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from Cornell University, majoring in Religious Studies and Government and writing an undergraduate thesis on the human and ecological effects of light pollution and dark night skies. He was formerly the Dining Editor at The Cornell Daily Sun, and he’s now taking the lead on West Central Initiative’s Climate Action Newsletter.
