Patterns & Paradigms | The Pattern Podcast
Patterns & Paradigms | The Pattern Podcast
Season 2 Episode 14: Sullivan Renaissance with Denise Frangipane
There's a renaissance happening in Sullivan County - a movement that believes in building beautiful, active communities through beautification, neighborhood revitalization, community development, healthy communities, and business.
This week's episode features Denise Frangipane, Executive Director of Sullivan Renaissance, who oversees the organization and operational activities of Sullivan Renaissance and facilitates collaborations, representing Sullivan Renaissance through its many community partnerships. Sullivan Renaissance was founded in 2000 by Sandra Gerry, who saw the possibilities for Sullivan County, and ultimately teamed up with another existing grassroots effort called Sullivan First, who was working on similar clean up and beautification issues.
We are experiencing a paradigm shift, a fundamental change in the way we usually do things. We are intentionally choosing to see the silver lining opportunity arises. We can shine a light on the things that weren't working well on those things that weren't really working at all, we can regroup reevaluate and re-engineer it's time to explore new patterns and paradigms those that inspire us to rise above the chaos and explore how the conditions of today and take us to a better tomorrow patterns and paradigms the pattern podcast from Hudson Valley pattern for progress. You're listening to season two, episode 14 Sullivan Renaissance with your host pattern, president and CEO, Jonathan Dropkin.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone, and welcome to patterns and paradigms. We hope that you're all caught up and had a chance to listen to our discussion with Freddie Garcia about a project he is doing with the support of pattern to create a pipeline from the community to the boardroom for people of color. And last week was a summary episode of where we have gone with the podcast and where we want to go. Please remember to subscribe to our podcast wherever you find your favorite. And take a moment to share an episode with a friend this week's bubble or trend. So toward the beginning of COVID economists, which I play one on TV looked for a simple way to explain the potential pathway of a lockdown on the economy. Economists tried to make it simple by using a letter to describe the shape of the new post pandemic recovery. So for instance, the worst case was referred to as an L-shaped recovery. Think about the letter L and you can conjure an image of the economy, cratering and staying there. Then there was the U, which would have us for a prolonged period at the bottom, and then coming back or the V we went all the way down, but then immediately bounced right back. That didn't quite happen. There was the w which kind of explained what happened when the surgeon deaths and virus occurred in the holidays, Thanksgiving through Christmas, and the economy was going up and down kind of like a w but the winter is the K shape recovery by K. It is meant for one part of the economy to have come back. So think letter K one part of it extends moving in an upward trajectory, but the other part of the K has it going downward, and that's, what's really happening for some, there has been an incredible recovery and they've actually done even better. You know, many people are not, not the majority of people. There are investors in the stock market, for instance, that have done quite well throughout the pandemic. However, there is, and I'm going to say the majority of people who didn't have equal access to the internet or sorry, jobs disappear for them. It is the lower part of the CAE that is occurring. That is why under the Biden administration. There is an effort to create first, the$1.9 trillion recovery. And now the debate over the$3 trillion stimulus bill, um, in part to address that part of the cake that is finding it so hard to come back from this, um, there'll be more on that$3 trillion, uh, recovery bill as the podcast continues. Now, one thing I want to point out is that for many, they think of this as the black and Brown community was the hardest hit. The truth is that it is also who are white members of the economy that have also struggled. And that if you can break down the barriers between the different communities, you'll understand that there is a, um, relationship between just do you have enough money or don't you, do you have a job? Do you have a place to live? And, you know, if you have access to healthcare and it transcends black Brown, white, that's what the K shape recovery looks like now, is it a bubble or a trend? And that depends in part on the recovery bills coming out of Washington, but building back better means also including equity. And that is equity for black Brown and poor white people. So that's this week's bubbler trend more on that later, I'm here with my partner at pattern Joe Chakka Joe, what do you think we should talk about this week?
Speaker 3:You know, I've been giving a lot of thought about main streets,
Speaker 2:Main streets, so
Speaker 3:Main streets act as the spine of a community. And I look at them as being the, the lifeblood for activities and events, social gatherings, and they, they pose, uh, a position of creativity for young entrepreneurs and visitors. For that matter main streets have festivals. They have street fairs, farmer's markets and parades, whether your main street is one block or one mile, uh, main street defined your community in many ways. And it tells a story of the past and it told a story of the present. And it also has, you have to look at it like what's the future going to be so many of our older industrial cities often to refer to as legacy cities have revitalized parts of their main street, Middletown great example right here in orange County. There were the first downtown revitalization initiative winner in the Hudson Valley, which was five years ago now, along with a$10 million grant from the state, the city invested in new infrastructure, new facades parks, and the rail-trail commons. So somebody might ask what the rail-trail commons is. So go ahead and ask me, what is the rail trail comment?
Speaker 2:Hey, Joe, I was thinking, what is the rail-trail commons
Speaker 3:Funny? You should ask. It was an adaptive or use of an old, a five and dime store called the Woolworth's in the, turned it into commercial spaces with a rail trail going right through the center of it. It's now the home of a bakery, a chocolate tier in a restaurant. And I think JD, you know, a little bit about that chocolate here,
Speaker 2:I sure do. It's one of my favorite stops. Um, they are, uh, to have them this close is dangerous for me, um, because of the quality of their chocolate. Um, they are, Rachel does a phenomenal job there and, um, I do encourage anyone who's listening, uh, shameless plug for them to go take a visit.
Speaker 3:It's a great little spot, other great examples of thriving main streets include beacon and Hudson. You know, the, the pandemic hit main street businesses. Very hard though. Main streets that were thriving pre pandemic have bounced back fairly well. Well, main streets that were struggling will have a longer road to recovery, but in looking forward post pandemic, I would ask the communities that, that really to describe what their story is, what do you want your main street to be? Um, and your main street really means to tell that story. So, as I like to say, perception is for many visitors. So if your main street is doing well, there's a far better chance in the overall health of your community will be doing well and your community will thrive. Yeah,
Speaker 2:You've always taught me that one way to, to look at a community is to drive by their, um, main street, look at their windows. You get kind of a sense of the community, you know, who lives there based on the kind of foods or the signage, but also then you can see how many stores have vacant sign of vitality.
Speaker 3:That's right. And in, in some communities where there is a high vacancy, unfortunately what they'll do is they'll pretty up their vacant buildings. And, you know, so you don't have to have a main street that has, it has, you know, old, old stuff hanging out on, on the glass, you know, old signs and things just kind of wrecked inside. You want to pretty it up, put some, put some flowers out, but some colorful things out, even though it's vacant you, you can make it, you know, at least a little bit more friendly. But the other things I was thinking that really work well on a main street is being pedestrian friendly way. Finding for the ease of navigating through shops and amenities. Parking is a, is, is, is a definite if you're not located necessarily on a train station or a bus station where people can visit through mass transit, parking is important trees and greenery and flowers. Of course, every main street has to have a brewery, a coffee shop and a cafe. But another critical thing that main streets are doing now is installing widespread wifi. And that's, that's very, very important post pandemic because as we know, many people will be doing remote work and why not work off the main street if you can do it
Speaker 2:Well. And then there's all the things that they allowed the restaurants to do during the course of the pandemic, which should become permanent, which is allowing, um, broader amounts of sidewalk. And even into the street, in some cases, they would take a parking space to allow for outdoor dining. It creates the sense of vibrancy in the community that I think is, uh, is one of those things that should stay, we're always looking for, you know, did something happen that was potentially good during the pandemic and how do we keep it going?
Speaker 3:That's right. What did the old adage is, is, you know, don't let a good crisis go to waste. So I think, I think there's some good lessons to be learned.
Speaker 2:Well, we got a big crisis on this one and, and we're not, that's been our whole hope with the podcast has been to try to find those things that we would not let go to ways. So thanks Joe and main street as a topic, I'm sure we'll return to our guests today is Denise frangipani. Denise is the executive director of Sullivan Renaissance, a program funded by the Gary family in Sullivan County through the program, the family and its, um, entities such as the Garry foundation have invested$5 million, but it is leveraged over$13 million, pretty good ROI. It is dedicated to community beautification and renewal in Sullivan County. Denise has led this effort for 20 years and Sullivan County is the better for it prior to working at Renaissance. I must, uh, tell our listeners, Denise worked with me on the development of Bethel woods, worked as an[inaudible], used to be an a woods man, but now I think we'll have to come up with an books person. Um, but in it is a person who most people don't know the term. Uh, so it's a person who, um, in Denise's case, she worked in the Sullivan County division of family services, helping people who were lost in the system navigate their way through it. Denise is one of the most dedicated, organized, and just all around good people that I have had the joy to work with. Hi, Denise, how you doing? And you know, it's over a year since the pandemic started. So, you know, how, how are you?
Speaker 4:Um, good, very good. Personally and professionally, I think we are, first of all, happy that it's spring. It's always hopeful this, this time last year spring was a little different. We were, were weren't sure what was on the horizon for us, but we're doing really well really, really well. And, uh, with new perspective and, um, a lot of gratitude resilience.
Speaker 2:So before we jump into Sullivan Renaissance, um, which you're the head of, um, I do want to tell our listeners that Denise has had the dubious distinction of having worked for me, not once but twice. And, um, so we're, we're colleagues, friends, and, um, but the work that she is doing with Sullivan Renaissance is why we're here to talk today in the podcast. And I think you'll find it inspiring. So Denise, why don't we just start with explaining what is Renaissance?
Speaker 4:Sure. Well, first I am here because of you Johnson, because when you accepted the position with the foundation, way back before the development of Bethel woods, um, you invited me to join you here. Uh, we've worked together at the County and then you invited me to join you here. So thank you because 20 plus years later here I am, um, that might seem illogical in some ways to stay in one place for so long. But I think the beauty of what we're, where I am and where we were, is there so much here that is developing and has evolved. We were part of a development team to build something. And even after it was built that being Bethel woods and right at that time, right around that exact time, we were challenged with the concept of what became Sullivan Renaissance, which, which I'll talk about in a moment. But the beauty of being able to say 20 years is so much has evolved. It's not this, we're not doing the same thing for 20 years. This program, and this initiative has been an evolution and always changing and adapting. And I know we'll talk about the pandemic, but certainly, and especially during the pandemic, we were as with many people challenged with how to make kind of remain relevant during a time when so much was questionable. But, um, but yeah, so Sullivan Renaissance is a community, a beautification and community development initiative that is primarily funded by the Garry foundation in Sullivan County, that our focus is in Sullivan County. Uh, we began with a mission to enhance the appearance of Sullivan County while building a sense of pride and community spirit. And as you know, Jonathan, but for your listeners, um, that came after a bit of a grassroots movement to try to clean up the County Sullivan County, um, having our history in tourism and agriculture, uh, we, we were hit pretty hard several times over the decades as those industries changed. And, uh, we saw people leaving this community and leaving behind, um, buildings, empty buildings, empty businesses when the hotels all closed. You know, we have that history that very rich history of the large hotels, the borscht belt, you know, the Catskills and, um, when that changed, uh, it left a void in the community avoid that became, um, really visually obvious with, uh, the way that the counting looked. And you may have been County manager at the time when there was a survey that was done. I asked people in the community what they saw as one of the obstacles to economic development in Sullivan County and the response that most of the community came back with was what we look like. Absolutely. So when you think about that, it's actually very remarkable because we, as at Sullivan Renaissance, we talk about that all the time that, you know, we started out as an organization that was, um, based on this, this idea that you could inspire people to clean up their communities by giving them a grant and then offering them a reward for doing it. And I don't think we ever knew at the time that that seed of an idea would, would develop in the way that it actually has. Um, when Alan and Sandra chose to invest in this idea of Sullivan Renaissance, I don't think they imagined, I don't think any of us imagined the, how deeply rooted it would really become that the people in Sullivan County were ready for this type of a challenge and, and Rose to the occasion. Certainly the funding helped because it helps have resources. Uh, they definitely make it the job a little bit easier, but the work is still there. Um, so that's what we do. We give grants to communities. Uh, if I had to describe it today, 20 years later, what we're doing is we provide grants. But if it wasn't for the volunteers and their vision for their communities, there would be no Sullivan Renaissance in the way that we exist now. Right.
Speaker 2:So it wouldn't matter that you had ha ha like for instance, for perspective, how much in grants did you give out last year?
Speaker 4:Um, probably less than, probably less than$300,000 in grants.
Speaker 2:Yes. But then there's the, the golden platinum golden father
Speaker 4:Gold and silver. So those are larger state grants that we secure and in partnership with our sibling woman, alien, Gunther, and former Senator Jen Metzker that we bring the, we help facilitate that funding into the County. So, but based on the funding that we give, our clients are small, they range from 500 to$20,500 to$20,000. That's the range of the grants that we give.
Speaker 2:Right. And I think all that I was trying to explain to our listeners is that, um, the magnitude of the money, and I think that's really important that you broke it down that way, which is, let's say it's$300,000, which, you know, in the scheme of projects, all throughout that's and Valley may not be a lot of money. And then there's some bigger grants that you help to facilitate, but your point is wouldn't matter, unless people bought into it that they wanted to volunteer to help and be part of this effort. And I think that's what makes this so unique. I mean, I, I don't know of other programs like this in certainly in New York,
Speaker 4:No, nothing like this. Exactly. Nothing that allows, um, grants to come in for grassroots efforts and they're all there. And that focus on a very simple idea that you can clean up or beautify a space. And there are many programs out there that support community beautification and community development, but this is private investment, private investment through a foundation that leverages, uh, in state funding in some cases, as I said, with alien and with our former Senator Metzker to bring those dollars directly into the County, to do everything from fix a sign, coming back to what we look like to create a park like circle park, to create a magical place of healing circle park. You pick that one, what is it? And describe it. Yep. So circle park is a park in lumber Lynch, Tanner Slumberland, which is Glen spey area. For those who may or may not be familiar with the area, um, back in, it was 2004, maybe 2005. I'd have to check the date exactly, but they ha they suffered a tragedy. Uh, they, they lost a young person in their communities to a tragic loss and the community was really torn apart from that. And I, I need to put it in perspective by telling that story, because it really is the Renaissance story. So there it was their story. And that's what I love so much about the work that we do is that we allow, we support communities in their what's their story. So in LumberLink it was the loss of[inaudible] a young girl and the community was suffering that tragedy. And they came to us during one of our grant processes and, and to apply for a grant to help them create circle park and circle park, uh, basically is a, um, a space in LumberLink that was donated by the town for the purpose of creating a park at the time it was wooded and it was vacant. No buildings were on it. And now if you go there, there is Bacci ball, miniature golf, basketball, hiking trail, all types of playground equipment. Uh, there it's very whimsical, uh, and at the center of the park, in this, not, not exactly center, but it sort of serves as a cornerstone to the park. There is this beautiful bench that's dedicated to[inaudible] who passed away. And it just sort of captures the essence of what it means to be a child, and to really enjoy this amazing place that people come from all over the County. And the interesting thing about circle park that is really a characteristic of several other Renaissance projects is I just start building these things and you have a vision. And now all of this, um, experience that you have had is going into this project is common purpose. So regardless of you know, who you voted for, how you feel about politics, what your, where you stand on any position, these, this idea that you have a common purpose, it brings a community together. And then you get to stand back and see the results of what you did. And now you have this legacy, but circle park has developed in such a way that now they got to the point where they just like, we can't add anything else. So now we want to activate the space, right? So you build a plate, you build a space and then you turn it into a place and then you activate it. So how did they do that? They started doing Halloween events there and they did outdoor movies there. And they did like the standard express there. And so now you've created a destination in the community, and now here we are 2021. I have an eight year old child. I'm lucky, lucky if I can drive past circle park without Kalyana circle park. And it becomes like we're going to circle park on Tuesday. All the kids are going there. And all of that grew out of a tragedy, unfortunately, but, but in addition to that, this idea from the community that they wanted to create this space, and,
Speaker 2:You know, it's funny, the inner, since it's going to unforeseen unfortunate for, you know, our listeners in this, uh, discussion, it's going to bring me back w you know, being able to look at you and then say, it kind of reminds me of you. And I approaching Alan Gary to say, Hey, while you're thinking about what you're going to do on this space, can we have a farm market out there?
Speaker 4:Right, exactly, exactly. So that
Speaker 2:We could have people come. And, and years later there's still a farm market, but now there's this magnificent performing arts center, which is a, you know, credit to Alan and all the people that worked on it. Um, well, let me, let's talk about the pandemic and Renaissance. So did you stop, or did you have to rethink what you were going to do last year? Many organizations put things on hold,
Speaker 4:What did you do? Um, so when the pandemic hit last year, we were right in the process of our grant cycle grants coming in. And as you know, the way our, our grant program works is the grants come in, they get reviewed, the grants are awarded, and then the communities are in a competition, a competition for a second round of grants, which are awarded based on how well they did the first round. So I'm simplifying it obviously, but there are judges that come and they tour the community and they meet with the community. And that's in the core of the beautification program, but we have healthy community initiatives, business assistance. We have about four major grant programs now that have different elements within them. So all of those programs were in the process of being reviewed and getting ready for review. And we had to decide, what do we do? We, no one knew at that time, how long we were going to be on a lockdown. We didn't, if it was a week, two weeks. So we also had a conference scheduled for may. So the first thing we thought was because the conference being bigger, that can we still do the conference. And we all said, you know, we're just going to put that aside. It's a lot of energy, it's a lot of work. And we have no idea if we're going to get to that point where people are going to want to be in a co at a conference together. But when we looked at our grant program, what it allowed us to do, and it was our 20th year. So it was meant to be a big celebration. The conference was going to be the kickoff to a year of, you know, just a lot of happy Sullivan Renaissance stuff and celebrating our volunteers. And, um, it allowed us to actually take a step back and go back to the basics of who we are. And so we, so in short, we decided after talking to a few of our, obviously speaking with our founder, you know, with the Gary's, who were very supportive of continuing the program, especially in, we always say despite or in spite of COVID, we wanted to keep going. So we kept the grant program going, and we awarded all of our grants in all of our programs. We were amazed when we talked to the volunteers, when we asked, would you still want to do your project with everything that's going on? Do you still want to do this? And how many of them actually did? And by that point in COVID, they saw it as, um, a sign of hope. It's almost like spring. They started as a hopefulness that they could get out and do their projects. It was safe, you know, with the right protocols in place cause they were outside. So there were, there were ways to be able to work together and see your neighbor and still stay connected because our work is outside. So that worked out really well. And we also, we were going to do this anyway for our 20th year, but it became even more fun this year because of COVID we went and we visited all of the projects that we have funded since the beginning of Sullivan Renaissance, hundreds of projects, we divided them up and we went out and we visited them to see what condition they were in. How have they done in 20 years? The ones from the very beginning, you know, the, the white sulfur Springs projects and the first bird from the very beginning. And what we learned is that I would say about eight, if I did percentage wise, you know, 85% of them were still somehow still active. Either the community had continued the work like Swan Lake, for example, they always keep going, or it had been integrated somehow into the municipality. So the municipality was now helping to take care of public spaces, which speaks to a really important point. The fact that public spaces are not just for the volunteers who create them to go out and plant flowers and weed and do all of that. When you think about circle park, public spaces are a quality of life and a resource for communities. When you have a park, you talk about it. When people want to move to your community, you say we have parks, we have a farmer's market. We have all of these things. So we were really excited to see that either the groups were still going or the projects had somehow partnered our municipality, um,
Speaker 2:85%.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I could list, I could pull a list of the projects that were, had gone fallow. I would say that,
Speaker 2:And we're going to stick with the 85 saying that is remarkable. It is over all these years, that many projects that have been done, and those are dozens and dozens of projects were in some state that allowed people to still either enjoy it or be our participant. That's just a phenomenal success.
Speaker 4:You may not, you know, you may go to a place and not know that it was funded by Sullivan Renaissance. At one point, it may not have a sign there that, that, but it might, but it's still a garden or it's still a park. And, um, and people just, you know, they don't all know 20 years ago how it started. That's also pretty amazing, but it was, it was really, and that's again, a credit to the community that we live in. I don't want to say it's not like that in other places, but I'm particularly fond of where we live so
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think when I became County manager, someone said to me, you know, this whole effort of trying to clean up the County, they said, take a picture of what you see today, because you will not remember it that same way years later. So after years and years of people doing Renaissance projects, absolutely. It's a really good point. No one would know what it looked like 10 years ago, 15 years ago, whatever one, and yet, um, they can enjoy the benefit of it. So let me ask you so now, all right, so you continued projects. People were able to work outside, so that was in your favor. So what went into the thinking for this year, now that everyone was on lock down and, you know, did, did COVID play a role in whatever projects or the program of work for 2021?
Speaker 4:Yes, absolutely. So one of the things that we did not do last year because of COVID was the judging. So we did not have the big judging weekend with the award ceremony and the judges sort of parading around visiting the projects. And, um, we found that that was okay. That was okay. The communities still did the work. They still showed up. The projects were still wonderful. I think balanced out with the fact that people had more time, that they could invest. We had more volunteers active because people were not working the way that they normally be working. So they had a little more flexibility. So we're not sure, you know, hopefully that carries through. Um, but we also, we decided that because we still were unsure of how things were going in 2021. We created the program this year without judging in mind. So where we went into 2020, we had it all planned out. We were going to have judgy and we were going to do this whole big thing this year. We went into 2021 without judging. And we put judging on hold again this year to see how it goes. And now we're looking not that you know of anyone, anyone from Sullivan County who might be listening, this is just in discussions to see how often is judging really necessary in the longterm. And how often would it need to happen? Because we still have the engaged community. They're still able to realize their projects. We're still working on a different level, um, with, depending on the type of project that you have, and the resources are still flowing. So the judging has been put on hold again for this year. We don't know where we are. We'll be at 2022.
Speaker 2:So it's a shame that didn't happen many, many years ago, because I know that when I was a driver for the judges, everyone in Renaissance was always Jonathan, would you please drive the route in advance? Because you're the one that always gets lost and doesn't know where, and that used though is bother everybody, but that's not an issue
Speaker 4:Anymore.
Speaker 2:So no judges, okay. But, but then how do go ahead.
Speaker 4:Our judges are amazing people, so we didn't want to lose them completely. So we've found a way to keep them engaged. So some of our judges now serve on grant review, um, and they're, and which is great because they have familiarity with the communities. So for example, in our municipal grant program, one of our strong municipal judges is on our grant review committee. So we've kept those professional people engaged in different ways. And if we go back to judging one day, we still have those resources because we did have a really wonderful slate of judges we've worked with over the past, well, 20 years, but over the last, I'd say 10, eight or 10 years, we've had the same group of judges every year.
Speaker 2:Any idea why? Because I know that there, there are plenty of communities that care about their appearance. So why do you think this hasn't been replicated despite an 85% success rate? Any thoughts about what, what does it take to create a program like this? I mean, certainly it had the commitment of someone like you who's been there from its beginning to ensure that it gets done. And having worked with you for many years, most people will not know what that means to have a Denise there who is committed to her job, things get done, they get done with, you know, flow charts. They get done with timelines. Everything is expected to be done when it is, but then it's also done with caring for the people that are both working on it and the community and the volunteers. But why do you think it doesn't get replicated?
Speaker 4:Um, that's an excellent question because we're always willing to talk about what we do and how it can be replicated because it is replicable. The w what many communities don't have necessarily is a, is a foundational or a resource that would allow it to do giving in the way that we do. So that gives us flexibility. I think there are things happening in other places like New York restoration project in, in New York and where P Bette Midler's effort in the city, it's comparable to what we do in Renaissance. The difference areas that they own, the properties that they work on. So they create these pocket parks in neighborhoods, but they own those properties. They almost serve as like a land trust for those properties that were going to be developed. And she basically bought them all and put them into this, this program. So I think it's, uh, but on a smaller scale, it's interesting because Sullivan County, we don't function like a tat like one place, right? Everything is county-wide. So in that sense, I say, well, if we could do it here, you can do it anywhere, right? Because when you're focusing on 15 towns and six villages, 21 unique kingdoms and personalities, priorities issues, populations that come and go, and yet you can still get to the core of the volunteers, that very grassroots group who may have, you know, they don't have any grand scheme of what could happen necessarily. Initially they're focused on, on what they set out to do. And that's why it works because they're not looking to take over, you know, a big initiative or a big project or the world. They just want to fix this one thing. And you had said this Jonathan years ago, think big, start small, do something. I feel like what we do here is replicable. If you take the money as if you put the money aside, and I think you can find the money, I think there are ways to find that money through sponsors. And we're just very fortunate that we don't have to do that. We're fortunate that we can focus on the work because we have the, the generosity of the Gary foundation. But when you think about, and I'm sort of going off of your question, but I feel like I want to say this now, you know, when, and I've said this before, when you think about how little control we have on issues on a national scale or a global level, and how helpless you can feel when you're watching the news, or you're, you know, just in general, participating as a global citizen. And you look at what we're doing at Renaissance, and I'm sure what other communities have done in different ways. You can see the impact. You can make a difference. We're not going to change the world through Sullivan Renaissance, but we're going to change our world through Sullivan Renaissance, and our volunteers are changing their worlds. And so that is replicable. I, I had, I listened to this fabulous interview with a woman from Staten Island recently, and she was talking about her efforts to be, you know, to move the sustainability conversation on Staten Island, which we've called static Island to on different occasions. Right. I didn't know they were considered the Greenboro. They have all the parks. And I always just knew about them as the landfill was there, but I thought it could be exactly. And now all the other things that it has going for it. So you asked someone from Staten Island if they're going to change the world, but she's focused on her area. And if everyone did that, it's kind of mind your business, so to speak, but in a positive way, you would be, it, it just has a, um, a multiplier effect that I think we have not, we have underestimated so far maybe with the pandemic, that's different because we saw so much of the need to go back to community to support one another to, you know, to survive mentally and in other ways. So going back to, is that replicable? Yeah. I think it is replicable. When you, when you think about the idea that you don't have to take it all on you just, you just focus on one area and you have a success and you show that success, and then you build on that success and people then feel like it's possible and it's possible. And so I think that's the beauty of what we have the opportunity to do every day in our work.
Speaker 2:So, okay. So people that come and go, um, Sullivan County has a large, um, Orthodox population that Somers within the County, but that is actually a regional, um, notion in that it, you know, it adds to the population in orange County, Rockland County. Um, have you been able to bring them into this effort to think about helping to make the greater community of Sullivan County look better?
Speaker 4:So I will say that we have been able to try whether we have succeeded, I would say, no, we have not succeeded. Um, and there's so many reasons for that. Obviously the seasonality is one thing. You know, people I grew up as I was a bungalow kid, we came up to the country from the city, and then we finally moved up here. So many of the people that we know are living that life, especially now, right in COVID so many people are replanted here. So our seasonal neighbors, as we, as we call one another, come here at a, at a very specific time and they leave at a very specific time. They're not really invested in the community. They're invested in, they're definitely hyper-local in their space, right? So they're not invested in the community for the most part. Now we see that changing. We do see, you know, communities that are becoming more engaged, I'm sorry, more, um, less than, more than the two months or the summer months, communities are growing our efforts to engage our seasonal community was through a contest, uh, give them a grant to clean up their property. And in the same way that we worked with everyone else give you a grant to do a project. And then there were judges, and then you got a prize. The difference. And the reason that it didn't work was because we were basically, and I'm going to be very candid. So I hope this is okay with your listeners, but we were basically giving them a grant to do something that they should have been doing anyway. And that was just to keep the property clean for the most part. And we were awarding, we were rewarding, good behavior. That was really behavior that should have just been done as a good citizen. So it didn't stick. It wasn't sticky. And so we were giving these grants and we had great response. We had really nice projects. It was a lot of enthusiasm. And, uh, and I think that in, in the moment they were engaged, you know, the campers, the camp operators were engaged, but the way that they're set up, if they're the camps and the bungalow, you know, the they're, um, they have help that cleans the property. They have staff who pick up the garbage when the kids throw the garbage off. So there wasn't anything that we were able to do to change the thinking. It was good in the moment. It was exciting. And we, we, we rewarded the good behavior. We rewarded with grants that it could do other projects, but it wasn't sticky. So we decided we weren't going to do that anymore because it was actually taking away from, this is me speaking. Now this is not my organization speaking, but me as the, as the director with the, with the, the view of the organization, I felt that it was in some ways, undermining our credibility in the rest of the community. And, um, so we said we would shift gears. So where we are now is anyone can apply in our program. No one was ever excluded. We just sort of targeted communities with a special grants as a way of engaging them. So all of our seasonal residents and their are welcome to apply in our program in any of our programs business. And we have done, I think we've had our most success with seasonal businesses. They've done great. They've done really great. And any of the camps by low colonies housing, they can all apply. And one thing that was on the radar pre COVID, but it didn't happen because of COVID was we were scheduled to do some training with expediters, expediters, or people who work with projects and help them through the process. It's expedite makes it sound like they fast track it, but that's not what they do. Like in a restaurant. And expediter is the person who gets your plate ready before it's brought out to your table, or they garnished it. They make sure you have a lemon for your shrimp. So an expediter is the person who facilitates a development project, and our goal was to meet with them and help them see what was important to our community. What are the values of Sullivan County? And that way, when they were expediting a project, they could try to work with those values in mind, um, that did not happen because of COVID. So it's on our short list. Hopefully we'll be able to get to it a different way.
Speaker 2:Let's return to a different thing about how Renaissance grew. So that initially was beautification, but you've tried many other things. There's summer interns, which has value unto itself. And maybe you could talk about some of the other kinds of arms and legs that came out of Renaissance, which are wonderful stories.
Speaker 4:We're like an octopus. So, um, the intern program is 16 years old now. Wow. It's old enough to be an intern if now, and you know, it started and thank you for allowing me to start that program because it was a passion project for me for awhile. Uh, we have another person on staff who manages that program now, and it couldn't be in better hands. I'm really pleased with Ann Louise, our volunteer program manager. She manages that. I will say just while I can. And I, I like to, whenever I can, that I have an incredible team of people here. How many staff now, there are eight and every, every one of, as opposed to me telling you, here's what you need
Speaker 2:To do. And you would go, there's only me, Jonathan, what, what do you have in mind?
Speaker 4:And all talented in their own ways and come together as a team. And it's not always easy, but just like we work in the community where everyone is different, we've figured out how to do that.
Speaker 2:He did it. Don't you also, or have had people who specifically speak Spanish so that you can communicate with certain communities. Is that still part of your,
Speaker 4:We no longer have that person on staff? We no longer have that position. That was one thing that we, we did peel back on, not the Spanish speaking piece, but we had a neighborhood revitalization program that was very much about being in the community. One-on-one with people. And we just needed to pause that. Um, but
Speaker 2:You still have someone who speaks Spanish.
Speaker 4:No, unfortunately we have, uh, two people in our steering committee who speaks Spanish that we can engage. Um, but it's on our list to try to get back to that at some point. But we do not have someone on staff who speaks Spanish right now. We'll look, but the program,
Speaker 2:This robust, that has been around for so many years, you obviously, I feel that same way about pattern. There are plenty of things that I try. They don't work. You, you try to hit a good, you know, in baseball, when you're hitting 300, it's considered, you're considered a superstar, you know, for you to say 85% of your projects is still in relatively good shape is an incredible stat. The idea that you've tried, and maybe it didn't work with the Orthodox community that you've tried and recognize that with the growth in Latino community, that it's necessary to have someone that speaks Spanish. So you'll return to it. You'll go back and you'll say, maybe there's another way we can do it,
Speaker 4:But mostly outreach because not to be inclusive. And so the same way with the Orthodox in the seasonal community, it doesn't matter to us whether you live here three months, a year or 12 months a year, we still want to work with you. So we tried a standalone program to do that, but it wasn't the right way. Our, our program is about being engaged in your community. It's about being part of the, of the movement. We call it a movement. So these things that we talked about
Speaker 2:As a prior environmental activist, that's how I first met you.
Speaker 4:That's right. That is right. Still, still. But we found that the things that we tried to do in silos don't work for us. Like we really need to not have barriers within our own programs. So even for outreach, it's important to be able to speak to someone and talk about the work and, and invite them in. You need to be able to talk that whatever their language is, whether they're speaking Spanish or speaking teenager, you have to be able to speak it's to the language you have to be relevant. You have to make yourself relevant. You have to meet people where they are. And that's part of what we tried to do. And if we can't, then we try to find a partner who can help us connect. So interns, I, I will send you a video that was created by a former intern turned program assistant last year, we had her on staff and I couldn't have done it better all these years. I've been talking and trying to talk about what the internship program does, how young people come to this job. And they think, Oh, this is a great summer job. I'm making above minimum wage. I'm making, you know,$5 more than whatever the number might be at the time. And I, I can work, I'm working, but I can have a second job. All of the perks for doing it. At some point in the program, you see a change and it becomes like, there's almost like an aha moment where they realize they are part of something bigger than themselves, and they realize what they are doing. And I can't tell you how many times I've heard. I really can't tell you how many times I've heard a young person in the internship program. Say that up until that point, they, all they wanted was to get out of Sullivan County and now they might go, but they could see themselves coming back or, or, and I love this one the most they might go, but they will be proud to say where they came from.
Speaker 2:So please send us the video and we'll add, we'll add that as a link. It's amazing
Speaker 4:To hear it in their own words. Okay.
Speaker 2:All right. One, one, I'm looking at the time. One last question. And that is
Speaker 4:So
Speaker 2:You're clearly a creative person. Is there anything that you wish you still could do with Sullivan Renaissance? Be it, whether it was money, whether it's volunteerism or there anything that's been left on the, as they used to say the cutting room table, now it's all digital. So there's no cutting room table anymore. Is there anything else that you've thought about that said, you know, if we ever had the time or the money or something, that would be another component of Sullivan Renaissance.
Speaker 4:Wow. You know, if we can't do it or we're not doing it somehow, we're working with someone who is doing it. So health, my health was we created a healthy community initiatives grant program. Now that now we're part of, or, or supporting another effort of the Garry foundation called Sullivan one 80, where they they're focusing on community health. So I think we're in a very unique position where we don't want to do it all and we can't do it all, but, and we've come back to our roots. You know, we have beautification, community development, healthy communities, and business. So we really have ways of touching on all things. And if we're not doing it directly, then we're working in partnership with others to help them with their mission, which ties back. I personally would love to see us do more around, um, agriculture or environmental conservation that's me. But we do that through some of our programs. We S we do support agriculture through our healthy community initiatives program and the environment as well. So I can't really put my finger on something specifically right now, because I feel like we're doing what we're good at. And if, but that's not to say that if ideas come to us like this year, we decided to move on litter again. Right. It was something that we had been involved with for awhile, and then other people are doing it, but litter is always going to be an issue. It's never going to go away, lazy people, litter, and it's always going to happen. And so we, the month
Speaker 2:Of March is never a kind one when the snow disappears and people get to drive around the County and they go,
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's never going to, it's never going to stop. And so we just always have to be prepared to address it. So we'll always be doing that. But, um, one of the programs that we launched three years ago, our neighborhood revitalization program, and we did a, uh, an initiative called block, the block where we chose a block and we worked with the neighbors to see if we could work on a defined space. I love that effort and we didn't do it last year because of COVID. So I think we want to bring back neighborhood revitalization in some way where we can be out. Um, last year we did, um, we called it clean sweep. That was another benefit of COVID I guess, is that some of us who get stuck in the office, more like myself, we're able to be out in the community more. So we went as a group and we did, um, rock, not rough, but clean sweep, where we would go for a day and work with the community. I think we like to do more of that, but I can't think of anything yet, but we're open to, we're always open to ideas. So if there's something that people think we might be able to help with, we're happy to, to see if it works within our mission.
Speaker 2:We'll put your contact information as part of the video. So Denise, thank you. Unless you have a final word. I learned that I never get the final word.
Speaker 4:No, I just want to say that. Going back to, um, the idea of being replicable, I we're, we love to talk about our work. And so if someone sees an opportunity that they could do something like what we do, we would be more than happy to sit down and brainstorm and help figure it out.
Speaker 2:Um, it's a good offer from a great program with a great leader. So thank you for your time today. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to patterns and paradigms the pattern podcast. For more information about this episode, visit our website pattern for progress.org forward slash podcast.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].