The Coco Canary Newsletter
February 2025
Summary:
Exciting project updates, a FREE webinar, presenting at the CREA Conference, a social justice grounding, personal updates, and in Coco Canary’s February 2025 Newsletter!
A Social Justice Grounding & Calls to Action
News
- The Tragic Death of Sam Nordquist: A Call for Justice and Accountability
- Leonard Peltier is Home!!: Released From 49 Years of Wrongful Incarceration
- 10th annual Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives: Hundreds march for missing and murdered Indigenous relatives in Minneapolis
- No More Deportation: Communities Continue to Stand by Immigrants Amidst Fear, Heightened Enforcement
- Minnesota racism then and now: A statewide review
All Eyes On
- Palestine/Lebanon/Israel: The ceasefire deal continues, but fighting, arrests, and deaths continue to rise in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The reconstruction of Gaza and the occupied West Bank will require an estimated $53.2 billion over the next ten years, according to the latest Damage and Needs Assessment from the UN and partners. Also, in Lebanon, tensions ease along the Blue Line of separation.
- Ukraine: Fighting and deaths continue to rise, and the new possibility of US support stopping has created uncertainty for the future. See updates here.
- Congo: Goma Under Siege! DR Congo violence has pushed 35,000 to Burundi, says UN refugee agency.
- Sudan: UN investigators detailed multiple attacks on civilians, healthcare facilities, markets, and schools, as well as ethnically motivated executions. Learn more here.
- Yemen: Political solution to end war in Yemen is achievable
- Syria: Thousands of displaced head home, but many refugees still wary
Calls to Action
- READ Jewish Voice for Peace’s (JVP) recent news bulletin: Trump, Israel, and the “imperial boomerang”
- SIGN JVP’s Arms Embargo Petition: Tell Congress: ARMS EMBARGO NOW.
- READ: How to talk about Palestine in the workplace: A step-by-step guide to starting
- VOLUNTEER at Standing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ): Lots of opportunities to get involved to fight fascism and racism (both nationally and locally)
- SIGN Protect Wild Rice Petition (MN ONLY): Contact Your MN Legislators
Business Updates
1. Project Update Summaries
1. Photovoice and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) with the Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County (Seattle, WA)
In our last newsletter (you can read it here), I shared how Sully Moreno from Culture Shift Consulting and I were preparing for an in-person focus group with eight community members. Here is what has happened between then and now.
- November 2024: The focus group went great. I especially loved that it was multilingual (Spanish, Thai, and English). The photo above shows how we exhibited participants’ photos and photo captions (both in English and Spanish).
- December 2024: We analyzed the qualitative data and began report writing.
- January 2025: We sent an initial report draft for review to the Hazardous Waste team. After we got their edits, we then sent a 6-page executive summary (and the full draft report for reference) to the Community Research team for their review.
- February 2025: We have received the Community Research Team’s feedback, so now Sully and I are making the final edits to the report. The goal is to send the final draft by the end of the month, and to start preparing for project presentations to client leadership in March and April. Some of the Community Research Team will likely join us to co-present.
2. NSF-Funded Urban Tree Benefits & Hazards Participatory Study with the University of Minnesota (UMN) – Forest Resources Department
I started a new participatory research contract with the UMN in January! The overall goal of this project is to explore the perceived benefits and hazards of planting trees to mitigate extreme weather scenarios and to co-design innovative mitigation solutions utilizing urban tree and forest management, as well as other land management techniques.
- January 2025: Kick-off meeting with the project team (a mix of social scientists and hydrologists). Co-developing a focus group/workshop protocol.
- February 2025: Finalize the focus group protocol and recruit participants (individuals who conduct urban tree and forest management within the Twin Cities area).
The focus group is Phase 1, which will happen in March 2025. In Phase 2, we will bring together a subset of focus group participants to begin solutioning based on the focus group findings, and then we as a team will co-write an NSF proposal together!
2. Want to Learn More About The Work I Do? Sign Up For Our Webinar—or See Me At CREA!
Sully and I are hosting a FREE webinar on February 25th (1 PM – 2 PM Central) titled Community-Based Participatory Research: Gathering Meaningful Data Using Creative Approaches. We will share a bit about what CBPR is, what arts-based methods are, and then share case studies for how we integrate them into our work. You can register here. If you can’t make the event, please still register. We will likely send the recording to registrants. See below for a quote from Sully about why she believes in this work.
“This topic is important to me because I strongly believe that community members need to be part of community engagement and evaluation projects from beginning to end. When community members help design, collect data, and make meaning from data, we get the strongest possible guidance for how to best serve the community. Through this webinar, Molly and I will share how you can collaborate with community through all these phases, with real project examples.”
Lastly, Sully and I will also be in Chicago to present at the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation & Assessment (CREA) Conference. Join us April 8th – 11th!
Other Business Updates
Listen in on a Conversation about Creative Evaluation with Molly O’Connor on the Next In Nonprofits Podcast
Molly was invited to chat about Creative Evaluation and Community Engagement with the podcast staff at Next In Nonprofits. You can find the podcast episode here!
Offboarding as President of the Minnesota Evaluation Association (MNEA)
December 31st, 2024, was my last day as president of MNEA. It was so fun celebrating the incoming and outgoing MNEA board members at the Annual Business Meeting and Making Connections event in December.
The May 13th Group Podcast
If you want another podcast to listen to, I highly recommend The May 13th Group’s podcast.
Personal Update
Winter Joy With Friends, Family, & Community!
Above are images of my Winter 2024/2025, and below are image descriptions from top left to bottom right.
Image 1: Molly smiling to the camera before a recording session in the music studio. Molly and her bandmate, Ilse Griffin, plan to release a 5-song EP in Spring 2025! Also, Michael, Molly’s partner, is the mixing engineer, producer, and studio musician (he plays banjo, Farfisa organ, and percussion)!
Image 2: Michael skiing outside of Bayfield, Wisconsin. We took a long weekend to celebrate Mike’s 2-year cancer-free anniversary.
Image 3: Michael making a snow angel on the frozen shore of Lake Superior, just outside of Ashland, WI.
Image 4: Molly and Sully Moreno posing with gift bags that were given to focus group participants. Molly was in Seattle for a week for the Photovoice project and then took a long weekend to relax with Sully and her family in the nearby mountains before heading back to Minnesota.
Image 5: Molly, Michael, and his parents smiling before watching her favorite community event of the year, Barebones.
Image 6: Molly, Michael, and her brother in law warming by a fire at the St. Paul European Christmas Market
Image 7: People listening to stories around a fire during the Celtic holiday, Imbolc.
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 Community,
Molly O’Connor (she/her/hers)
Founder, Principal Consultant, and Creative Evaluator
direct: (612) 868-0364
email: moconnor@cococanary.com
website: cococanary.com
