By Emma Clark
During my time as a Sustainability Fellow, partnered with the Apalachee Regional Planning Council, my supervisor, Divina Lade, who is a geospatial planning manager & resilience officer for the ARPC, has been my primary source for generally informal networking (particularly with other resilience officers).
One of the key takeaways I’ve had from interacting with the ARPC staff is the importance of relationships in change-driven organizations like this one. This is certainly reminiscent of the ARPC’s history: after enduring a financial crisis in 2013, the ARPC staff & ARPC Board worked tirelessly together to stabilize the organization. This was an entirely collaborative effort. The value to such teamwork remains, however – even when everyone desires the same goal (sustainability, in the case of the ARPC), success cannot be achieved without inter-organizational trust and communication.
The collaborative meetings have served as fantastic observational settings. Much of my individually assigned work has revolved around determining the merit to various decision-making processes utilized by various regional collaboratives (ex. consensus, governing board, etc.). Observing the ARPC’s collaborative meetings has given me a foundation for determining what kinds of practices seen in other collaboratives might be best adopted at the ARPC.
The organization is incredibly eager to engage with younger (and generally more inexperienced) perspectives. My background as a student of political science has been received particularly well, as I can offer a bit more insight into how changes in governance structures might be better brought about. My experience as a student studying philosophy has also been appreciated, as it’s equipped me with strong analytical & conceptual skills that have streamlined the research process and allowed me to articulate how suggestions might be applied to the ARPC.
Interviews certainly differ from observations in that information is filtered with emotional undertones. Interviews allow you to hear about personal ties or connections to the work, information that isn’t always communicated in an observational setting. Observations have value in that the limited amount of information being gathered reveals many implications, including implications about dynamics, relationships, collaboration, etc.
I envision the process of “co-constructing knowledge” as directly involving the community in my accumulation of information and understanding about them. This method of research is a sustainable practice in and of itself, as it ensures the endurance of their insight and feelings as they truly feel them. In regards to this specific community, I can actively co-construct knowledge by continuously checking in and making sure that my work is reflective of their community.
The process of gathering data while I’ve been partnered with the ARPC has offered me incredibly valuable insight into the theme of community dynamics and the organization itself. I am excited to continue this work throughout the remainder of my experience.
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