Sustainable Connections

### Context Profile for Sustainable Connections

1. **Organization Mission & Cause**:
   - **Mission**: Sustainable Connections aims to create a thriving community by promoting local businesses, sustainable practices, and environmental stewardship. They focus on fostering connections between local businesses and the community to enhance the local economy and environment.
   - **Cause**: The organization is dedicated to sustainability, local food systems, and community engagement, emphasizing the importance of supporting local economies and reducing environmental impact.

2. **Type of Activities**:
   - **Events**: Sustainable Connections hosts various community events, including neighborhood tours, farm tours, and educational workshops. For example, the "Bellingham Neighborhood Tour" focuses on housing education and community feedback.
   - **Fundraising Campaigns**: They run campaigns to support local initiatives and projects that align with their mission.
   - **Community Programs**: The organization engages in programs that promote local agriculture, sustainable business practices, and community involvement.

3. **Tone of Voice**:
   - The tone of voice on the website and in communications is **friendly, engaging, and informative**. It encourages community participation and fosters a sense of belonging. The language is accessible, aiming to inspire action and awareness about sustainability and local issues.

4. **Emoji Usage**:
   - **Usage**: Sustainable Connections uses emojis in their communications, particularly in event promotions. For instance, they use emojis like 🕰️, 🏘️, and 🗣️ to highlight key points in their event descriptions.
   - **Frequency**: Emojis are used strategically to add visual interest and emphasize important information, making the content more engaging.

5. **Key Facts**:
   - **Founding Info**: Specific founding details were not provided on the website, but the organization has been active in the community for several years.
   - **Scale**: Sustainable Connections has a significant presence with 37 total forms and 46 email campaigns, indicating active engagement with their audience.
   - **Impact Metrics**: While specific metrics were not detailed, the organization emphasizes community involvement and feedback, suggesting a focus on measurable community impact.
   - **Volunteer Info**: Information about volunteer opportunities is available, encouraging community members to get involved in various initiatives.

6. **Writing Guidelines**:
   - **Style**: Content should be friendly and approachable, using simple language that invites community interaction. 
   - **Structure**: Use headings and bullet points for clarity, especially when presenting event details or key information.
   - **Engagement**: Include calls to action that encourage participation and feedback from the community.
   - **Visual Elements**: Incorporate emojis where appropriate to enhance engagement without overwhelming the text.

This context profile provides a comprehensive understanding of Sustainable Connections, allowing AI assistants to generate personalized and relevant content that aligns with the organization's mission and communication style.

All WHA events are offered free to the public!

$0 - (Free Registration)

This ticket helps to cover a portion of the meal that will be provided by WHA and our caterer.

$10 - (I am able to contribute towards my meal)

This ticket helps to cover a portion of the meal, speaker, event space, and event materials.

$25 - (Able to contribute towards meal and event costs)

This ticket helps to cover close to the total cost for one person for this event, not including staff time: Speaker, meal, space rental, collateral, etc.

$50 - (Covers Cost for ~One Person)

Your donation at this level supports today's event and helps to bring future tickets.

$100 - (Cost for Event + Some Staff Time + Future Work)

<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1724700304/h7cfv34bgsbu6nxt0swa.jpg" style="width:193px;display:inline-block;vertical-align:bottom;margin:5px 0px;text-align:left;max-width:calc(100% - 5px);position:relative;cursor:pointer;padding:0px 1px;user-select:none;box-sizing:inherit;float:left" />Norm Van Eeden Petersman We are honored to host this year's All Member Keynote, Norm Van Eeden Petersman, <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/" style="color:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;user-select:auto;box-sizing:inherit">Stong Town's</a> Director of Movement Building. Norm is an Expert Speaker for the <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;user-select:auto;box-sizing:inherit" target="_blank">Strong Towns</a> movement. A skilled communicator and community builder, Norm is an energetic enthusiast for the work that Strong Towns members do around the world. Norm's presentation is entitled “<a href="https://www.housingtrap.org/order" style="color:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;user-select:auto;box-sizing:inherit">Escaping the Housing Trap</a>.” It will help you understand the root causes of America's interrelated housing crises, and identify some rational responses that your city (and every city) can take. Talk of a "housing crisis" pervades American cities—be it about off-the-charts rents in coastal cities or hyper-vacancy in the Rust Belt. These problems are symptoms of a deeper dysfunction. Over nearly a century, through often well-intended top-down policy interventions, we've turned a complex system that should be adaptive and self-correcting into one prone to a never-ending cycle of boom and bust, crises and overcorrections. To address the dysfunction at the root of our housing problems, we need to shift our approach. We must move away from a model in which large developers and centralized financial institutions have unprecedented sway over what is built and where, to a more antifragile housing ecosystem in which the bar to entry is low, and every neighborhood can undergo incremental change over time.Topics Covered<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1724711438/inztymu5jex9wnc2h4qa.png" style="width:147px;display:block;vertical-align:top;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;max-width:calc(100% - 10px)" /><ul><li style="box-sizing:inherit">A brief history of how we arrived at the current set of problems, beginning with how crucial federal housing policies instituted in the 1930s created a set of perverse incentives still affecting the market today. </li><li style="box-sizing:inherit">A look at the 2008 housing market crash and its continuing aftermath. </li><li style="box-sizing:inherit">Why housing markets today are so prone to boom and bust cycles. </li><li style="box-sizing:inherit">How the incremental development of cities used to meet our housing needs, and why it no longer does. </li><li style="box-sizing:inherit">Why our cities have a "trickle or fire hose" problem, in which a small minority of neighborhoods undergo rapid, dramatic transformation while the majority see only a trickle of needed investment. </li><li style="box-sizing:inherit">How a growing number of places are adopting reforms that can break them out of the "trickle or fire hose" dynamic and make incremental housing development possible again.</li></ul><hr /> <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1724711527/bcfvgkwd8sslqfyzhtuh.png" style="width:150px;display:inline-block;vertical-align:bottom;margin:5px 15px 5px 0px;text-align:left;max-width:calc(100% - 5px);float:left" />Following the presentation, Q&A and Discussion with Norm Van Eeden Petersman we will have lunch provided by Structures Brewing and networking. We will then welcome a presentation by Northwest Youth Services. Representatives will be updating us on their new Lincoln Street Housing Project. This housing project or Healing Space, will partly rely on middle housing to create a unique community for youth who are transitioning out of homelessness. It's an important case study of how middle housing can create community. Get to know the project, their goals and how you can help make this project a reality!

Hi <span contenteditable="false" data-custom-variable="{{firstname}}" fr-original-class="fr-deletable styled-tag-chip " fr-original-style style="background-color:rgb(248, 248, 255);border:1px solid rgb(191, 191, 255);border-radius:4px;color:rgb(42, 42, 196);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:1px 8px;font-size:11px;line-height:16px;overflow-wrap:anywhere;user-select:none;box-sizing:inherit">First name , Thank you for registering for the Fall All Member Meeting with keynote Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Wednesday October 16th at Structures Brewing on Holly Street. 🚀 If you would like to contribute further, contact us to become a <a href="https://whatcomhousingalliance.org/join/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;user-select:auto;box-sizing:inherit" target="_blank">member</a> or sponsor of the Whatcom Housing Alliance, or volunteer! See you there!The Whatcom Housing Alliancescottp@sustainableconnections.org

<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1724700304/h7cfv34bgsbu6nxt0swa.jpg" style="width:193px;display:inline-block;vertical-align:bottom;margin:5px 0px;text-align:left;position:relative;cursor:pointer;padding:0px 1px;user-select:none;box-sizing:inherit;float:left;max-width:100%" />Norm Van Eeden Petersman We are honored to host this year's All Member Keynote, Norm Van Eeden Petersman, <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/">Stong Town's</a> Director of Movement Building. Norm is an Expert Speaker for the <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/" target="_blank">Strong Towns</a> movement. A skilled communicator and community builder, Norm is an energetic enthusiast for the work that Strong Towns members do around the world. Norm's presentation is entitled “<a href="https://www.housingtrap.org/order">Escaping the Housing Trap</a>.” It will help you understand the root causes of America's interrelated housing crises, and identify some rational responses that your city (and every city) can take. Talk of a "housing crisis" pervades American cities—be it about off-the-charts rents in coastal cities or hyper-vacancy in the Rust Belt. These problems are symptoms of a deeper dysfunction. Over nearly a century, through often well-intended top-down policy interventions, we've turned a complex system that should be adaptive and self-correcting into one prone to a never-ending cycle of boom and bust, crises and overcorrections. To address the dysfunction at the root of our housing problems, we need to shift our approach. We must move away from a model in which large developers and centralized financial institutions have unprecedented sway over what is built and where, to a more antifragile housing ecosystem in which the bar to entry is low, and every neighborhood can undergo incremental change over time.Topics Covered<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1724711438/inztymu5jex9wnc2h4qa.png" style="width:147px;display:block;vertical-align:top;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;max-width:100%" /><ul><li>A brief history of how we arrived at the current set of problems, beginning with how crucial federal housing policies instituted in the 1930s created a set of perverse incentives still affecting the market today. </li><li>A look at the 2008 housing market crash and its continuing aftermath. </li><li>Why housing markets today are so prone to boom and bust cycles. </li><li>How the incremental development of cities used to meet our housing needs, and why it no longer does. </li><li>Why our cities have a "trickle or fire hose" problem, in which a small minority of neighborhoods undergo rapid, dramatic transformation while the majority see only a trickle of needed investment. </li><li>How a growing number of places are adopting reforms that can break them out of the "trickle or fire hose" dynamic and make incremental housing development possible again.</li></ul><hr /> <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1724711527/bcfvgkwd8sslqfyzhtuh.png" style="width:150px;display:inline-block;vertical-align:bottom;margin:5px 15px 5px 0px;text-align:left;float:left;max-width:100%" />Following the presentation, Q&amp;A and Discussion with Norm Van Eeden Petersman we will have lunch provided by Structures Brewing and networking. We will then welcome a presentation by Northwest Youth Services. Representatives will be updating us on their new Lincoln Street Housing Project. This housing project or Healing Space, will partly rely on middle housing to create a unique community for youth who are transitioning out of homelessness. It's an important case study of how middle housing can create community. Get to know the project, their goals and how you can help make this project a reality!

Sustainable Connections

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"Escaping the Housing Trap" w/ Strong Towns - WHA Fall 2024 All Members Meeting

601 W Holly St

$0 - (Free Registration)

Free

$10 - (I am able to contribute towards my meal)

$10

$25 - (Able to contribute towards meal and event costs)

$25

$50 - (Covers Cost for ~One Person)

$50

$100 - (Cost for Event + Some Staff Time + Future Work)

$100