1. Overview
WHAT IS COMPASS?
COMPASS (Comprehensive plan Outreach for Meaningful Public Action & Sustainable Solutions) is an interactive, informative climate exercise, designed to engage community members in conversation and mutual learning about climate change in San Juan County. One of our goals is to gather meaningful comments for the Climate Element of the Comprehensive Plan and empower future engagement.
Developed by a small team led by Faith Van De Putte, Chom Greacen and Nikyta Palmisani through the Madrona Institute and in partnership with Friends of the San Juans and family resource centers, COMPASS is supported by a Department of Commerce grant to expand public participation in the Comprehensive Plan process.
To learn more about COMPASS, click here for a more detailed description of COMPASS and its framework.
*NEW* You can now download COMPASS materials (presentation slides, card decks, and facilitation notes) so you can use them as a resource for starting conversations with your friends and family.
2. Activities
We have wrapped up four community-wide events:
LOPEZ: Friday February 21, 6-8 PM at Lopez Center for Community & the Arts
SHAW: Monday March 3, 3:30-5:30 PM at Shaw Community Building
ORCAS ISLAND: Sat March 8, 3-5 PM at Parish Hall
SAN JUAN: Sun March 9, 1-3 PM at San Juan Island Grange Hall
These sessions were a success. See our report below.
In addition, we held focus group meetings in collaboration with the SJC Department of Climate and Sustainability and family resource centers on San Juan, Orcas and Lopez islands.
3/28 San Juan (in English)
4/3 Orcas (2 sessions in English)
4/17 Lopez (in English)
4/24 San Juan (in Spanish facilitated by Melissa Montavo-Chavez)
5/14 Lopez (in Spanish facilitated by Melissa Montavo-Chavez)
We are also supporting the SJC Department of Climate and Sustainability to do youth outreach using COMPASS materials to facilitate climate conversations. These sessions, both in and out of schools, are led by youth volunteers who have gone through COMPASS sessions and have stepped up to become youth facilitators. Many thanks to Matilda Twigg, Nonie Prout, Clauda Costa and Lola Walker for taking on this role!!
For opportunity to comment at the Planning Commission or County Council Meetings, check here.
3. Report
More than 150 participants from Lopez, Shaw, Orcas, and San Juan have participated in Climate COMPASS thus far. During these sessions, islanders generated ideas and suggestions on county climate policies and actions which we gathered and compiled into a report.
Download our REPORT which details all the comments, categorize them and rank them based on their frequency of mentions. See which ideas are of top priority for our community.
4. Links & Resources
Useful links & resources
SJC: Draft Climate Element
Our proposed revisions to the Climate Element to align the draft with priorities from community input
Planning Commission's March 21st meeting agenda. Click here for info on how to comment or join the meeting
Complete & updated list of links and resources can be found here or by scanning the QR Code or by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/climatecompass-sjc
5. Contact
Questions & Comments
Please contact us if you have questions/comments or would like to sign up to receive updates and notifications of upcoming events or opportunities to comment on the draft Climate Element of the Comp Plan or Climate Action Plan.
Email: climatecompass.sjc@gmail.com