Author: Ellie Holty

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Winter 2021 Internship Showcase

This term 13 interns worked on a variety of projects supporting fire relief, local community organizations, and self-leadership. Interns presented their projects on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Below are descriptions and links to each presentation, then the full showcase video is embedded at the end of this page.

Recovery Dashboard

Sabra worked with the nonprofit Remake Talent to create an interactive fire recovery dashboard using ArcGIS, county data, census data, and linking live data from other sources using APIs. She will be continuing to develop this project through the spring term. Video of the presentation.

Rogue Forest Restoration Initiative

Turtle worked with four non-profits and six public agencies to create a geospatial infrastructure to facilitate collaboration on project scale forest management, monitoring, and restoration in the Rogue Basin. Video of the presentation.

Family Nurturing Center Client Needs Data

Nicholas took survey information gathered by Family Nurturing Center to understand what the community was telling us about their needs and learn how to address the community’s core issues. Video of the presentation

Map of Fire Relief Organizations

Finlay created an interactive online presentation of the evolving network of fire relief organizations that provide resources to the Rogue Valley. Video of the presentation

Community Investment Fund

Brian continued another intern’s work started in Fall 2020 of creating a community investment fund, researching gaps between local banks’ loan terms and the ability of underserved entrepreneurial borrowers to get credit. Video of the presentation

Wellness Support Instagram Profile

Creating an Instagram wellness channel, Kelsey shared tips for mental health, well being, and resiliency, and also met individually with her many followers to support their personal journeys. Video of the presentation

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Forensics Lab Genetic Sequencing

Ritikaa worked at the local Forensics Lab to increase their reference sample collection to include DNA extracted from a variety of species. Video of the presentation

Self-Leadership and Discovery Through Songwriting

India created one original song by herself, critically examining and refining her creative habits to gain some insight into her artistic process. Video of the presentation

Accounting Support for the City of Phoenix

Hannah was originally tasked with sorting out the City of Phoenix’s water billing accounts post Almeda Fire. She then tackled the city’s 2021-2022 budget (yes, seriously!). Video of the presentation

Spanish Translation of Fire Relief Resources

Jorge continued working with LIL for a second term, this time helping Mi Valley Mi Hogar ensure that all their outreach materials are accessible to the Spanish speaking population.

Funder Database

Another intern (who wished to be unnamed) worked with the Gordon Elwood Foundation to create a “visually appealing, accessible online database profiling key funders in the Southern Oregon region.” 

Local Innovation Works Social Media and Website Support

Ryden helped to post events and updates on Facebook and to revise and add content to the LIW site.

The full showcase video hosted by Ellie Holty, Program Director of the Local Innovation Lab, and Stephen Sloan of the Humane Leadership Institute:

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Front Page News!

Local Innovation Lab interns are making a real difference in our valley’s recovery from the twin disasters of 2020.  Their impact was recently featured in our local newspaper.

The article features Local Innovation Lab intern Hannah Brandt, who worked with the City of Phoenix to clean up their post-Almeda fire water billing and helped them with their 2021-2022 fiscal budget. To quote:

Brandt is one of the first beneficiaries of Local Innovation Lab, a project borne from the 501c3 nonprofit Local Innovation Works, whose genesis can be traced back to a conversation between Humane Leadership Institute founder Stephen Sloan and Local Innovation Lab program director Ellen Holty. Last April, Sloan had just published his book “Humane Leadership: Tools to Engage, Empower, and Improve Performance” and had planned to go on a book tour down the West Coast. Then COVID-19 struck, which led to a heart-to-heart between Sloan and Holty.

“You just wrote a book about leadership, and our community needs leaders more than ever,” Holty told Sloan. “What are you going to do, here, now?”

Here’s how Hannah was impacted by the experience.

Brandt said her internship with the city of Phoenix has been an eye-opener, and a godsend.

“Honestly, better than I even imagined,” she said. “I was excited to get experience in the field I want to go down, number one, and number two, just to be involved in the community has been amazing. I haven’t had that opportunity, especially with COVID and everything. It’s been a lot of being at home and not going and seeing anything. So getting to talk with people in the community and help out has been awesome and more than I could have asked for.”

Read the whole article here.