Moss & Musings: A PCAO Blog with ED Nicole Cunningham

Thanks for checking out this quarter’s Moss & Musings. If you’re just tuning in, here’s a link to explain what this series is all about! 

As I’m writing this first piece to share with you, I’m feeling the duality of enthusiasm and heaviness that’s become a regular companion to my leadership in these complex times. I could talk at length in this space about the challenges, frustrations and overwhelms many of us are experiencing as people, as preventionists, and as community members who know that a healthy future depends on the wellbeing of our kids and families. All of that is real and valid, but today I want to focus my energy on hope.  

If you work in the social services or have any kind of job that’s emotionally demanding, I’m sure you’ve heard people emphasize the notion that you can’t pour from an empty cup. It’s critical to find space for joy, play, delight, and care if we are to continue showing up for others and for ourselves.

There is much work to do in ensuring all kids and families have what they need to thrive. AND this work is impossible if we’re constantly on the edge of burnout and struggling to keep our own heads above water. If you take nothing else from this quarter’s musings, I hope you’ll take the reminder that it’s ok to live a life you love and enjoy, especially when everything around us feels hard and heavy. 

In that spirit, I’m going to tell you about something AWESOME that helped lift me up over the past several months! 

In May of this year I graduated from the American Leadership Forum of Oregon Program! This is the Oregon chapter of a nationwide leadership program focused on building cross-sector leadership, relationships, and collaboration. We have more than 1,000 Senior Fellows in Oregon’s network. You can learn more here. As I transition out of my cohort year and into the Senior Fellows network, I’m honored and humbled by the incredible experience I had over the past 9 months exploring this amazing state with my colleagues. Our cohort included a powerhouse line up of leaders from Baker City to Coos Bay to Medford to Portland and I just can’t say enough good things about them. Learn more about them here!

Graduation at the Matt Dishman Community Center in Portland

Over the past 9 months we traveled across Oregon to learn from and with local leaders to better understand the needs, challenges, opportunities and strengths of our communities. We spent Community Building week at camp in Klamath County and then made monthly visits together to: Woodburn, Sisters, Medford, Hood River, Grand Ronde, Newport and Baker City before rounding out our year in Portland’s Albina Neighborhood.

Community Building week in Camp Deboer in Klamath County

I look back on this adventure and am reflecting that I learned a TON about the people in Oregon; our industries and economy; social climate; political landscape; and much, much more. We dove into everything from sustainable agriculture in Halfway and indigenous fishing practices in the Columbia River Gorge, to disaster response infrastructure in Sisters and early childhood partnerships in Medford. I also made an amazing group of friends, with relationships forged in equal parts sweetness and necessary, thought-provoking spice. To be held in a space where I could show up as my full self was a gift, but to be pushed to grow and expand with grace into discomfort was an opportunity I’ll cherish forever. It’s one thing to have trusting relationships, it’s quite another to build them and test them through an array of circumstances that change and adapt each month to where we are in the state! I’m already missing the anticipation and curiosity I’d feel ahead of each month’s gathering.

I will be flexing and strengthening these muscles forever, but feel so nourished by the ALF Oregon experience and what it brought my way in terms of people and understanding. These are the kinds of relationships that help me remember the bigger picture, know that I’m not in this alone, and to center humanity in everything I do. While our cohort year may be over, I can’t wait to see what comes next for this incredible group of humans as we move together into the next phase of this experience. 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to ALF Oregon, Class 47, and YOU for sharing this experience with me! Take good care of yourself and see you next quarter for another foray into the forest, friends. 

Warmly, 

Nicole Cunningham 
Executive Director
PCAO