Sustainable Prosperity
The Sustainable Prosperity Team works with communities across the region to help communities thrive by rising to the challenges of a changing world. Our work focuses on supporting communities, organizations and people by working together to protect and restore healthy natural and cultural ecosystems. Through strategic regional initiatives, we build on the Downeast community and culture to build resilience, hope, and agency.
What does sustainable prosperity look like?
- Acting locally, build regionally, connect broadly
- Supporting agency, collaboration & strategic thinking
- Spanning boundaries
Our work supports:
- Resilience
- Healthy people & ecosystems
- Hope & agency
- Systems thinking
- Working alongside communities to thrive by rising to the challenges of a changing world
Projects include:
● Downeast Conservation Pathways strategic planning
● Working Waterfront resilience and adaptation planning
● Sustainable Fisheries
● Heritage Industries
● Downeast Maine National Heritage Area program development
● Scenic Byways Management Plan updates
● Tribal Capacity Building
Sustainable Prosperity Principles
Bounce Forward Resilience
Bounce Forward Resilience means accepting, planning for and executing change (even if change is hard). In contrast, Bounce Back Resilience is a return to a previous state (even if that led to the problems in the first place).
Best practices to support resilience:
- Help folks to embrace change
- Providing tools, not prescriptions
- Build scenarios of the future
- Let go of preconceived notions of best path
*Hicks, Donna (2011-09-06) Dignity: The Essential Role It Plays in Resolving Conflict (pp. 25-26). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
Serving with Dignity
Dignity is an “internal state of peace that comes with the recognition and acceptance of the value and vulnerability of all living things.” – Donna Hicks, Ph. D.
Elements of Dignity:*
- Acceptance of Identity
- Inclusion
- Safety
- Acknowledgment
- Recognition
- Fairness
- Benefit of the Doubt
- Understanding
- Independence
- Accountability
Interested in learning more? Download the Serving with Dignity Guide or reach out to schedule a workshop with your team!
Sustainable Prosperity Leadership
Crystal Hitchings
Co-Director, Sustainable Prosperity
