The OCP Blog

Ron’s Update: OCP Industries are Working, and They Need Your Help

After 9 years of experimentation and learning, OCP has hit upon a way of doing things that is both effective and replicable:   

Industry within the culture of OCP that is staffed by folks who are already showing up for themselves. This idea is working and has the potential to help a lot of folks on the margins in lasting ways.

Through its trauma informed culture and democratically oriented membership structure, OCP prepares people on the margins to be ready for supportive employment within the culture of OCP.

We hire people for our kitchen industries who are in need AND who have taken the initiative to become official OCP members and are known for giving back to the community by volunteering their time.  Folks hired in this way excel at their work, develop leadership skills, secure their own housing, and become open to further help. (see my blog posts on trauma in the community, industry workers, and the Friday Lunch Restaurant)

OCP needs funding to support our industries in order to keep helping people in this way.  

 

I am devoting 100% of my work hours for the next two months to finding partners, patrons, and regular donors to underwrite this new version of OCP Industries so that we can focus on the beautiful lives at hand and not always on fundraising.

 

It has finally occurred to me, that the industries of OCP are not supposed to break even – they are programs designed to help people who need support, not super-efficient business enterprises.

OCP is more like a theater or an art gallery than a business enterprise. People support these things because they want them to exist and believe they are good for the community. Similarly, OCP is providing a service in the community, for the good of the community, that needs your support.

The industries are a vehicle for restoration. Meaningful work within a welcoming, loving, restorative and supportive community, can heal the soul, and lead to autonomy and personal growth.  

If you like the idea of financially investing in the industries within OCP, a community of restoration and hope, I would like you to contact me so that we can talk about how you might do that. 540-236-4314 or ron@ourcommunityplace.org.

Ron Copeland

Executive Director