As the heat begins to break and summer is showing signs of cooling, we find ourselves at a moment to pause, take stock, and celebrate all that we have accomplished together: We had a total of 107 full application submissions, that is 80% of applicants who were invited to continue to the full application round! We estimate that roughly 55 applicants were supported by nearly 25 Mentors. 34 Readers read across the LOI and Full Application phase. In the full application phase, a total of 321 application reads were conducted, meaning every single one of our applications were read by 3 different readers! 25 Finalists were selected to continue on to our final round of selection. 8 Decision Circle members came together to make final decisions, using an approach rooted in deep democracy, listening and curiosity, and bringing their full selves into the deliberation. The Decision Circle was a group of 8 community members who volunteered over 60 hours of their time in less than 2 months to review all 25 Finalist applications, interview large grant finalists, review small grant finalist videos, and make final funding decisions through a highly structured, democratic process facilitated by the Good Work Institute. The potency of the experience was in the open hearts and vulnerability shared within the group during the finalist review and decision making process. There, the group was not composed of disembodied heads making rational decisions, but rather whole selves coming to the table honestly; trusting that if they collectively can speak their truths–thoughts, feelings, and lived experiences–then together, they can make exceptionally difficult decisions. In a world where we are confronted with some of the greatest challenges of our times, it feels evermore important to practice moving through our discomfort towards collaboration, by flexing our muscles of compassionate inquiry and conversation. This is just as important as the funds we are distributing!

A Journey To Celebrate, Together

In all, over 200 people have made a mark on Kingston Common Futures’ pilot fund: bringing to life and participating in a design for a fund that has never been done before. We did it!  We look forward to celebrating with all those who have played a part in our pilot fund on September 5th from 5-7:30 at 65 St. James St., where we will also announce our Finalists and Grantees!  We hope you’ll come.

And We’re Not Done!

Like you, we are experiencing this fund process for the very first time.  We are also reflecting and listening deeply right now, and welcome your input from the process as well as we seek to evolve the fund to better support community needs. Share your thoughts here. As we evolve our work for future fund cycles, all of our applicants from THIS fund cycle stand at the forefront of our minds and hearts. The creative, physical, and mental labor required to complete our application process was no small feat, and we believe that, while our funding this year was limited, there remains more to be offered to these projects.  In the Fall, we invite all applicants together for a Commoning Exchange: an opportunity to share information, resources, and support amongst projects. Plans are still underway, so stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!

We use this word frequently at events and on our website, but what does it mean? The word itself originates from medieval Europe and referred to the management of land that was shared “in common” among communities. But the idea of the commons has existed all over the world and is as old as human history. At its core, the commons refers to the practice of people coming together to manage, share, and self-govern collective resources–food, water, land, tools, skills and knowledge. David Bollier, an author and activist for the commons, helps us break down the concept down into 3 essential parts: 

1) The resource: often a natural part of our earth–land, a garden, a wildlife species that offers sustenance; though it can also be another form of material good, a skill or knowledge, or even money. Whatever it is, this resource not only offers something of value, it is also finite and often requires tending to support its wellbeing and longevity.

2) The community: a group of people who not only benefit from this resource, but are also responsible for tending to it.

3) The social norms, values, and practices: this is the social system that organizes and guides community use and stewardship of the resource. What is the importance of this resource to the community? What shared values and purpose align community members to each other? What are the roles and responsibilities of community member? What does decision-making look like? All these questions and more must be clearly established and known within a community for live into the commons. While governing social systems are highly unique to the community and the resource, Elinor Ostrom, distills 8 design principles for the commons to be successful after documenting over 800 cases around the world. 

Credit: DebateGraph

Overall, the commons is highly relational, highly empowering, and highly local–taking ownership of the responsibility we have as community members to support each other and the resources we share in common, while building and stretching our muscles for deep democracy.

We hope to action more commoning here in Kingston, to move from privatized and capitalized systems to collective and regenerative ones. Like the name of our organization clearly states, we share a common future here in Kingston, and we aspire to bring community together to seed, grow, and steward that future: one where we share more access to local resources and decision-making power within our communities.