Join the Growing Center's Strategic Planning Efforts

The Growing Center is soon approaching its 30th Anniversary. The Center has evolved so much over the last few decades while remaining committed to its mission of supporting the local community through ecological, multicultural, and educational programming. In anticipation of this exciting milestone, the Friends of the Growing Center have begun conversations about how to continue that legacy into the future with a focus on Strategic Planning.

Why is Strategic Planning needed?

Strategic Planning is just a fancy term used to describe a process that helps organizations set goals for the future and develop the plans that make those goals possible. The Growing Center recently wrapped up an ambitious and transformative site renovation, creating a unique opportunity to think about how best to grow relationships, impact, and value to the community.

So, what might Strategic Planning look like?

In the simplest terms, Strategic Planning is a process of reflection, brainstorming, and prioritization. When the process is done well, stakeholders, partners and community members play a vital role at each stage in shaping the Strategic Plan.

The Growing Center recently hosted one such reflection event led by our partners at Terra Cura with folks representing members of the wider Growing Center’s community including, volunteers, board members, and residents of Somerville. Participants shared their reflections on what makes the Growing Center unique and the ripple impact the Growing Center can have within Somerville and the many ecosystems it inhabits.

While the Strategic Planning process takes time, investing in this work will make it easier to continue offering equitable programming and valuable space for the community while growing with thought and care. Over time, this will help The Growing Center to focus its energy on work that it's committed to, grow its influence, and expand its support to more of the community.

How can you participate?

There are so many ways to get involved.

The most immediate opportunity is to volunteer to join the Strategic Planning committee. The Friends of the Growing Center are looking for 4-5 volunteers from the community. Committee members can be both potential and long-time volunteers, who are interested in a year-long opportunity to shepherd this process and bring a strategic plan for the Growing Center to life.

As part of this experience, you can expect to collaborate with board members, partners and community members to design the vision for the plan. You’ll help mobilize resources needed to support the first effort of this process. Most important of all, you will get to make a lasting impact on the future of the Growing Center, and by extension, the Somerville community that benefits from this beautiful space.

Connect and with The Growing Center to stay informed

We’ll be sharing additional invitations for all members of the community to share their input, experiences, wisdom and feedback with us. We welcome all levels of engagement and will be exploring various ways to make the process accessible and relevant. There is also another anniversary-focused project to construct a local exhibit of our history and archives in the works. If you have stories or impressions you want to share from the past almost 30 years, we would love to hear from you! Not only will they help this project, they might influence future planning.

To share your ideas, get involved at any level or to learn more, please reach out to Lisa at lisa@thegrowingcenter.org. There are also many ways to connect with The Growing Center. You can bookmark our blog, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to our newsletter for more updates on Strategic planning and other exciting programming.