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The Cobscook Community Learning Center... conveying its value


Question:

How can the CCLC market itself to most effectively convey the value of its work and differentiate itself from other organizations?

Mission:  To sustain an educational setting within which people can cultivate understanding and enrich life through experiences in the natural surroundings, with our cultures and traditions, and through access to the arts.

Programs:  CCLC has four primary areas of programming:

  • Alternative educational opportunities
  • Arts education and access
  • Community enrichment and healthy systems
  • Economic Development

History:

1999 - Core group identifies need for regional enriched educational experiences; commitment is made to the creation of a learning center

2001 - First courses offered at CCLC, funds are raised to purchase land

2004 - Construction of first CCLC building completed and three full-time staff are hired

2005 - Full-time, year-round programming begins from CCLC campus

2007 - Construction of caretaker’s residence and the Community Commons building completed, allowing for a twenty-four hour staff presence on campus, a new, expanded pottery studio, a commercial kitchen designed to feed up to one hundred people, and a large, multi-use room

2008 - Two additional staff are hired, outdoor bandstand and amphitheater are completed, community gardens are completed, and the fiber arts studio is installed

Organizational Structure:  The CCLC is governed by a seven member board of directors comprised of people from Washington County who represent the constituency CCLC serves. Board President Stephanie Bailey is a Passamaquoddy educator and activist.  She has served on the board for three years and accepted the role of president in 2007.  Alan Furth is a co-founder of the CCLC and serves as its Executive Director.  Additionally, the CCLC’s full-time staff includes Directors of Office Systems, Programming, Development and Communication, and  a Teacher /Coordinator of the Passages program.  Part-time staff includes the Finance Coordinator, a part-time Office Assistant, and two part-time participants in the ABLE network, which provides subsidized work opportunities for seniors seeking to enter the workforce.

Financial:  The 2008 Budget is $378,000.

Revenues                                        Costs                      

Grants:  $235,422                           Personnel:  $213,641

Contributions:  $97,745                   Construction:  $12,200

Programs:  $40,000                         Program:  $126,174

Local Benefit Events:  $5,255           Operating:  $25,985

Demographics:  Washington County, where the CCLC is located, weighs in as the third poorest county in the United States.  Of the 30,000 people who live here, twenty percent live below the poverty level.  Only eighty percent of county residents are high school graduates, and fewer than fifteen percent complete a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Growth goal:  Information gleaned through the Springboard process will help CCLC realize the following goals:  1) to expand programming to include extensive wilderness programming, intensive short term residency courses, and The Community Year, and to build Passages to its full capacity,  2) to complete the CCLC campus, including construction of 50-bed dormitory and a small gymnasium, by 2010, 3) to partner with profit generating businesses that compliment the CCLC’s mission and values and 4) to secure and expand access to CCLC programs and reduce dependence upon grant sources by expanding the large donor circle and giving with the goal of establishing an operating endowment for the CCLC.

Strengths:  The CCLC’s strengths lie in the diversity of and access to programming, responsiveness to community needs, strong commitment to place, a healthy network of support (both financial and programmatic), a healthy, thriving organizational structure, and a process built around creativity, agility, and joyous spirit.

Challenges:  CCLC enjoys broad and enthusiastic recognition and support: its story and work is fresh and exciting.  CCLC needs to develop a clear strategy to leverage its story to secure the investments – through investments and contributions and/or effective marketing to meet the financial expenses necessary to operate at full capacity and with full access.       

Question:  How can the CCLC market itself to most effectively convey the value of its work and differentiate itself from other organizations?

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