End of April

We hope that spring is appearing wherever you are on this planet. This is when we realize that the daylight hours are stretching further, and even though the daylight  lasts longer each and every day, there is still that moment of ‘oh wow!’ for me when I wake up to daylight and ease into the end of the day with the same. Feels magical every year.

A few of us on the team have been meeting with leaders from across Washington and other states talking about the work of belonging and well-being. If you have been with North Sound ACH for any length of time, you know that we ground ourselves in some frameworks that guide our decisions and the work we take on. They include:

• Honoring tribal sovereignty
• Equity and Targeted Universalism (TU)
• Belonging and Bridging
• Vital Conditions for Well-being (with belonging and civic muscle at its core)
• Leading with Love

We envision a region where everyone feels a sense of belonging, and fully able to take part in decisions that affect themselves, the community, and the world that surrounds us. And each and every day, North Sound ACH learns of another organization or another network that is doing similar and aligned work. It is the right work to help us navigate challenging times and forces that want to divide us or make us afraid of each other. We know that we are stronger together.

Our team is grateful for all you do to nurture connections across the region – whether in small localized efforts or with broad strokes across the region, state, or country. As humans we are hungry for connection, purpose, and hope. The work you do gives us that and more.

We are spending the next month or so receiving proposals focused on food security. As we have in past years, we have a group of community partners and leaders who will review the proposals, and we have every confidence that you will offer up ideas that can transform the way we approach such a basic need.

We look forward to seeing you sometime this summer as we are out and about; in the meantime thank you for all you do each day to make this region a better place –