Community Choices, a Vancouver-based organization that aims to strengthen the health of Clark County through advocacy and dissemination of information, has formed a task force to explore its model in the wake of a change in leadership.
Earlier this week, the organization announced that Executive Director Sharon Pesut had accepted a position with the local nonprofit Partners in Careers.
“With Sharon’s departure we just thought, ‘Okay, let’s re-examine this. Let’s just do what’s going to really re-energize board, the council and serve the community.’ It may be a different model for the organization or it may be the old model with a clear initiative,” said Geoff Knapp, chair of Community Services’ Board of Directors.
According to Knapp, the newly-formed task force will gather information about what Community Choices has done in the past, then see whether there’s a way to make some of that momentum work, or just restart.
“Because it [Community Choices] in the past has not had a direct service, if you will, where you can say to a funder, ‘We are going to build this building and serve these children…’ it’s a concept that, especially in hard economic times, is hard to sell,” Knapp explained. “And so with that and some new board members with different thoughts about where we’re going, it’s just time to reconvene with the board and get a clear direction on what next steps we’re going to be taking.”
While Community Choices determines a direction that would best serve the county moving forward, Knapp said the business community should stay poised and be ready for opportunities, such as working with the organization on healthcare issues.
“With the constant rising cost of insurance, a lot of people are wondering what their options are,” said Knapp. “We can’t just sit back and have insurance companies tell us the premium is going up and just pay it and think that things are going to be changing. So maybe an initiative with Community Choices might be working with the business community to determine what options are out there to keep employees happy and healthy, but not under that old model. That’s just one of the types of conversations we’re having.”
