Dear City Council Members
I am the president of Gravenstein Health Action Coalition (GHAC), which some of you know as a very small non-profit organization with its roots in the County Health Action Program, which no longer exists. As we transitioned to a non-profit organization in order to continue our work, our mission and vision encompass the goal of improving the health of our community by collaborating and partnering with other non-profits, agencies and schools to help determine and act on, what the community needs to become a resilient and healthy community.
I thank you for your past support of our organization an I know that the budget of Sebastopol is struggling and you are working hard to maintain the necessary city services. I also understand that individual support for non-profits may not be available for years to come. However, I would like to point out that much of the non-profit work that is done in this community is all volunteer. For instance, the only paid position we have in our organization is very part-time administrative assistant. We have recently lost our subsidized office and we now struggle to find work space and places to meet that we can afford.
Rather than stopping all support to organizations such as GHAC. Perhaps innovative ways to support nonprofits.as a whole, can be funded. These can be things such as providing a shared work space, shared grant writing experts and perhaps, shared administrative help. This could allow those of us who willingly give our time and expertise to move forward efficiently.