Solutions Lab Overview
Kindle Project Solutions Laboratory
Program Overview
For the initial Solutions Laboratory pilot, Kindle Project is seeking to shift the narrative in Northern New Mexican communities related to our shared future in the face of a changing climate. We have invited our community; across all sectors, generations and fields to share ideas in their earliest stages of creativity in order to empower our collective impact towards creating a more vital future.
Solutions Lab Selection Committee
Seven cohort members were selected from roughly 40 submissions, reflecting early-stage, place-based ideas serving Northern New Mexico. For this pilot program, we diversified our decision-making process by extending our jury beyond the Kindle Project staff to include Kindle’s Steering Committee, a current grantee, and a facilitator who is helping to design and lead the cohort meetings. The diverse perspectives of a cross section of decision-makers from the Kindle Project family who are active members of the Northern New Mexico community allowed for rich conversations and a robust selection process.
2014 Solutions Lab Cohort
Our 2014 cohort members comprise a diverse group that includes high school students, a college, a freelance journalist and nonprofit organizations representing a broad geographic range and a mix of new ideas.
For four months, beginning in January, 2014, the group will gather twice a month to develop their early stage ideas through the development of their story. This process will link personal inspiration with a public narrative and provide a space for deep exploration around the many levels at which a story must develop to connect with various audiences in meaningful ways. The cohort will feature guest presenters, field trips and facilitated peer support in a way that develops the individual ideas, builds capability and a network of support while laying a foundation for shifting the community’s public narrative. The seven selected participants each receive a $3000 gift and form the initial Solutions Laboratory cohort.
We are very excited to announce the support of the Santa Fe Community Foundation, our generous sponsor for the initial 2014 Solutions Lab cohort.
The Santa Fe Community Foundation is a resource for philanthropists who want to maximize the impact of their giving. Founded in 1981, SFCF is a tax-exempt public charity that provides an avenue for donors to satisfy their charitable intents and for nonprofit organizations to receive funding that will enable them to carry out their essential work.
2014 Solutions Lab Facilitators
Why Adam is Excited About Facilitating the Solutions Lab Cohort
“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” – Lee Iaccocca
I feel a deep calling to help open pathways that move us towards re-aligning and re-integrating our human-based systems with the natural world, moving us collectively towards the profound regeneration that is being called forth at this time. Towards this end, I’m interested in learning about the potential that inspired community members hold to lead a shift of our common mythologies through developing and telling the stories of their solution-based ideas. I am fascinated by the way these ideas will develop and evolve in the Solutions Laboratory. I am excited about the creativity and qualities that will be unleashed as cohort members are brought together in a supportive, facilitated space. I have spent nearly 15 years working in the field of eco-social benefit, having helped to start and run nonprofits, foundations and programs. I have close to a decade of facilitative experience, oriented around organizing creative spaces that allow the wisdom of a group to emerge – which is only possible if we are all having fun together – and supporting the group to capture that energy towards developing meaningful outcomes.
Why Sarah is Excited About Facilitating the Solutions Lab Cohort
In order for lasting cultural change to occur, it must first take root in the social imagination. Stories are what shape the imagination or what some call the “old mind”. This unique and tumultuous time in history calls us to explore the stories we carry as individuals, communities, cultures and nations. The SoLab cohort offers an opportunity to reflect on the narratives of this moment, from social change to climate change, and by engaging the old mind in the telling of the project ideas, to listen deeply for a “new” story.