The vision of River Valley Commons*
To us, a 'commons' is a shared resource created by a community to be utilized by all of its members. The term gives off the sense of gathering for a reason: a community isn't just defined by people living near each other. A community helps each other, supports each other, enriches each other.
That leads us to some intriguing questions.
What if we could find all the resources we needed to do more for our community?
What if we could experiment with new opportunities for growth?
What if we could show the world what it truly means to be a rural community?
And most importantly, what if we could give every person in the River Valley hope?
These are the questions that drive us. Our vision is simple: we believe the River Valley is a special place. We come to work each day because we want it to thrive.
Our Mission
Our goal is to increase the well-being of the community and those who live in it through shared resources we develop, bolster, and champion.
Our Values
We respond to the needs of our community.
When our community is facing challenges, we are there. We may provide a short-term solution for immediate needs, or we may spend years planning and implementing a large-scale project. Regardless, our work focuses on the needs of our community.
We look for long-term solutions.
We want to do more than patch a problem. We want to fix it. We work toward solutions that will have a long-term, sustainable impact on our community.
We work to recognize oppression and challenge systemic issues.
As we solve problems, we work to see and confront oppression that may be inherent in the system we are trying to change and eliminate it from the solutions we implement.
We never do our work alone.
We collaborate with other organizations, government, and community members as we do our work. We recognize and honor the strength of working with others.
We act as connectors.
We connect people and organizations to resources and one another. We work to strengthen the fabric of connections in our community.
We are non-partisan.
We work with government to solve problems, but we are not partisan or governmental.
We are kind.
Always. We recognize the value of every resident of the River Valley, and we treat everyone we work with kindly and with the utmost respect.
We are genuinely optimistic about the future of the River Valley.
Rural places face a lot of challenges. The River Valley is no exception. We believe that this community can work together to meet those challenges and become stronger through that work.
Photo credit: Andi Coffin, Madison