In this edition of Community Tides, Co-Hosts Chris Bricker and Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, speak with their special guest, Kelli Pareher, one of our County’s true treasures. Kelli’s contracted positions and duties with the County include the Proctor House – the Juvenile and Family Services alternative to Juvenile Detention – as manager of options for low, middle, and high-risk youth, She’s also a Master Trainer and facilitator to professionals on a state level, and she’s a consultant to the Center for Anti-Bullying and Non-Violence, in Denver, Colorado. Today, Kelli talks with us about her current endeavor, the OWL360-Pfeiffer House Sustainable Living Project. The Non-Profit serves our younger local population of 18 to 24 year olds who are in need of shelter and assistance. Through grants and contributions, an old Victorian house in Uptown has been converted to a center and living space.

Chris Bricker’s Co-Host for today is Jen Kingfisher, Jefferson Community Foundation’s Non-Profit Relations Manager.
Chris and Jen explore a landscape view of basic needs that that the non-profit sector service and counsel in Jefferson County.  Those needs include food assistance for adults, families and school children; financial assistance (especially with utilities); housing and rental assistance (especially with the eviction moratorium in effect for the remainder of October); Pro Bono eviction legal assistance; transitioning of the shelterless from the Fairgrounds to the Mill Road property; the need for an assist in the navigation of resources for children and their families; and the need for available and affordable childcare. 

Twice a month, co-hosts Chris Bricker and Siobhan Canty, President and CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, get together to talk about new developments and new paradigms for our communities as we roll through the rest of 2021. In this edition of Community Tides, Siobhan and Chris speak with Richard Tucker, Executive Director of Jefferson Land Trust, about our local farm and agricultural community, the role they play in the economy and the vitality of our county, the challenges farmers face these days, and how Jefferson Land Trust supports our local farms. Finally, they explore the ways that each of us can give our local farming community our support.

This week, Siobhan and Chris speak with Bex Berryhill, who is not only Centrum’s Program Manager for Creative Youth Development, but she’s also one of the seven Cooperative directors of the Gray Coast Guild Hall in Quilcene. We learn about the building’s history, the mission of the cooperative, who gathers there, and the inclusive impact its range of activities can have on the local community.

In this edition, Siobhan & Chris speak with Port Townsend School District’s new Superintendent, Linda Rosenbury. We’ll learn about her background, her leadership style, and discuss what we should be looking for in order to make our schools successful. We discuss the cultural and socio-economic make-up of our students, and we talk about how to keep them safe in these uncertain times.

In this edition of Community Tides, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and Siobhan Canty talk with Daniel Ferland, who teaches band and orchestra at Port Townsend High School. (He also serves as Fine Arts Coordinator for the Port Townsend School District.  But there’s another hat that he wears, as well.) Dan joins us to discuss his role in an exciting program called YEA Music (Youth Education in the Arts). Its mission is to provide music opportunities to the youth of east Jefferson County that include instruments, instruction and performance. He explains the teaching philosophy upon which the music program is based (El Sistema), tells us about the faculty, and enlightens us about future plans for the Program.

This week, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and co-host Siobhan Canty, President and CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, speak with Dr. Molly Parker, Chief Medical Officer of Population Health at Jefferson Health Care. She has practiced Family Medicine with Obstetrics at JHC for 11 years. Dr. Parker is currently developing child care options for Jefferson Health Care and the community. Washington had already been in a child care crisis before the pandemic began, with too few providers for children in need. We discuss the current status of childcare in Jefferson County, and the effects of the childcare gap on working families and on our community overall. Childcare is a Public Health issue, and evidence shows that adequate early childhood development will be key to the overall health and diversity of our communities for decades to come. Dr. Parker also identifies the key childcare providers in our county, and she enlightens us about other initiatives in the works that can help to close the childcare gap. 

Quilcene is a small and vibrant community that, along with Brinnon’s lush lands and their residents, makes up an amazing southern complement to our beautiful Jefferson County.  We’ll focus on South County’s families and children, community updates, and events for this edition of Community Tides, and talk about Quilcene and Brinnon’s emergence from the pandemic. Siobhan gives us a South County overview, and then we join special guests Trish Beathard, Superintendent and Principal of the Brinnon school, and Kathleen Kler, a nurse, an artist, and former District 3 County Commissioner, to fill us in on the details.

This week, hosts Chris Bricker and Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, speak with Megan Claflin, Director of Development for The Production Alliance. We learn about the Alliance’s origins and reason for being. We explore the talents of its members and how they compliment one another with creative celebratory ideas for our community. We also learn about the latest benefit for non-profits—TENT-ACITY. Tune in and find out!

On this edition of Community Tides, KPTZ host Chris Bricker and Siobhan Canty, President and CEO of Jefferson Community Foundation, have a conversation with Hilary Canty, Executive Director of the Orcas Island Community Foundation (OICF). She not only happens to be Siobhan’s sister, but Hilary and her staff are a big part of making things happen on Orcas Island. We compare and contrast our two Foundations, and we find out more about the Island and who lives there, the trends of people coming and going, and specifically about the housing and sheltering situation on Orcas. We discuss some of OICF’s successes in that regard – in particular, a housing solution in the works on Orcas that is worth considerable discussion here in our Jefferson County communities.