The Coco Canary Newsletter
October 2024
Summary:
Photovoice project update, social justice grounding, recent publications, personal updates, GET OUT THE VOTE, and more!
A selfie of people, including Molly, posing after a day of doorknocking in western Wisconsin. This photo was taken by a Standing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) Organizer.
A Social Justice Grounding & Calls to Action
News
- Justice for Marcellus Williams: Political execution of a Black man carried out by the Supreme Court
All Eyes On
- Congo: Watch this video from Friends of the Congo to learn more about this decades-long crisis.
- Palestine: As I write this post, over 42,000 people have been killed in Gaza and nearly 100,000 wounded since Oct 7th, 2023. The video footage of unwarranted raids by Israeli settlers and police in the West Bank during the olive harvest has been upsetting. And so much more. Ceasefire now!
- Lebanon: Over 2000 people are dead since Oct 7th, 2023, and thousands more are injured and displaced. Also, the unwarranted Israeli aggression towards UN peacekeepers, health workers, and more.
- Yemen: Despite regional escalation, peace is still possible in Yemen
- Sudan: The refugee crisis in Sudan is immense. 8.2 million Sudanese are displaced, and thousands are fleeing to neighboring countries daily.
Calls to Action
- VOTE!! I’ve been writing letters and doorknocking to encourage folks to Get Out The Vote. If you are (or someone you know is) unsure how to register or vote, check out vote.org. They have resources to help you.
- Support a communty-loved Black-owned coffee shop: Flava Cafe needs our financial support!
Business Updates
HAZ Waste Project Update #1: Community Research Team Recruitment, Photovoice, and Preparing for the Focus Group
Sully Moreno from Culture Shift Consulting and I have been busy with our newest Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project with the Hazardous Waste Management Program (within Public Health – Seattle & King County). We’re using Photovoice, which is a qualitative research method that uses photos taken by participants to provoke deep conversation and bring about social change. We’re specifically exploring the negative impacts of hazardous waste in South Seattle and what motivates people to take action to reduce their impact. Next year, we will take our findings and, with the help of a community task force, design tangible ways to motivate others to get involved with hazardous waste reduction and disposal.
Below is a high-level summary of what we’ve been up to since June 2024.
- Recruited 8 community members to join our community research team (specifically individuals who live or work in South Seattle, identify as a person of color, and are involved in local community-based organizations).
- Led an onboarding meeting where we shared a project overview, explained what photovoice is, and trained community members on how to use the photo app Lense (one participant preferred a handheld camera).
- Over a 3 week period, community members took over 120 photos, inspired by prompts developed by the research team. Four photos can be seen in the banner above.
- The research team chose 5 photos per participant. Each photo will have a caption connected to it, written by the participant. This is because the photos and captions will be printed and hung up in a gallery format for the focus group.
Our next project milestone is the focus group, scheduled for November 2024. We’ll share how it all goes in the next Coco Canary newsletter!
Other Business Updates
Check Out My Recent Publications!
I had two articles published in July! Check out Lessons Learned: Creative Methods, DEAI, and Community Engagement Go Hand-in-Hand in American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) 365 Blog and Lessons From Coco Canary’s Business Development Journey in AEA’s IC TIG Newsletter
Coco Canary’s 2023- 2024 Annual Narrative
If you missed last month’s newsletter, check out Coco Canary’s 2023-2024 Annual Narrative. We have business highlights, testimonials, an impact report, and more. You can read it here!
Community Centric Fundraising (CCF) – MN’s Annual Conference
I’ve been co-leading CCF-MN since 2021. This year, I helped co-organize our second annual convening. I also presented about Creative Evaluation in one of the breakout sessions. It was such a fun event!
Personal Update
Summer / Fall Joy With Friends, Family, & Music!
In my last newsletter, I shared that I got married in May; yay! Well, I leaned into deep rest in June and July and then had lovely trips and hangouts with family and friends from August to October (though I had my first-ever bout with COVID-19 in September, which was NOT fun).
Above are images of my summer and fall 2024, and below are image descriptions from top left to right.
Image 1: My mom and Mary (my granddad’s cousin) standing in a graveyard. We went on a trip to Eden Valley, MN, to visit where my great-grandfather was a country doctor. I loved hearing Mary and my mom tell their stories about the O’Connor family and what it was like to spend time in small-town Minnesota.
Image 2: The northern lights with hues of pink and green. This was the first time I’ve ever seen the northern lights, and I even saw them in St. Paul, MN!
Image 3: Sully Moreno and I standing in front of Minnehaha Falls. Sully visited me for her vacation, and it was so fun hosting her and showing her why I love living in the Twin Cities.
Image 4: Molly and her bandmate, Ilse, recording music for their EP in a local church.
Image 5: Friends around a firegrate surrounded by camping gear in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area & Wilderness. I went on a 5-day backpacking trip with Michael and friends.
Let’s Stay Connected!
To keep up to date with my business news, connect or follow me on Linkedin. Don’t forget to follow our newsletter below! And, of course, if you know of anyone who may benefit from our Creative Evaluation services, send them our way. Referrals are what make the world go round.
In solidarity,
Molly O’Connor (she/her/hers)
Founder, Principal Consultant, and Creative Evaluator
direct: (612) 868-0364
email: moconnor@cococanary.com
website: cococanary.com
