Rural Community Builder Name: Tara Johnson
Community: South Coast (Coos Bay), OR
Role: Executive Director for the Nancy Devereux Center
What is one word or phrase that describes this person as an RCB: Political Contradiction
Recognized by: Scott Cooper from Coos County, OR
Tell us a bit about what you appreciate about them as an RCB: I met Tara in Roseburg at a Ford Family Foundation grant writing class. We had both just started our E.D. jobs and realized we were working only blocks away from each other. Since then we have collaborated on dozens of community projects usually surrounding our underserved population. We have regular “accountability meetings” just to make sure we are focused and doing all we can to move our community in a single direction. We expanded our team working into New Community Coalition helping us to have an even greater impact on our community
Small nonprofits were stretched thin before COVID. Now many of us are looking at the future wondering if we can make it through. In many cases in our community, the conversation has been around how we can collaborate to get the job done or what resources can we share to help our community. We are all too busy working on solutions and don’t have time to get bogged down on the problems because there is work to be done. Tara is always ready to take some action and that is why I am inspired by her!
