What’s new with the network this quarter?

February 18, 2017/Ryan Clover

Screen Shot 2017 09 18 at 10.25.06 AM One of our ongoing efforts is to continue to provide feedback and transparency into the work of Halt The Harm Network.

We hope you can find ways to use this feedback to find new services, connect with other leaders in the network, or find ways to work with us to meet the goals.

We can now more easily publish our quarterly reports for leaders to see that report back on the health of the network.

Based on the work and interviews with 24 people working on the issue across the country, and based on the feedback we continue to receive, we assess the strength of Halt the Harm network and our effort based on three overarching categories: (1) Build the Network; (2) Expand Services; and (3) Grow the Base. This approach is rooted on experience that suggests as the network brings in leaders fighting the harms of fracking in their own way, connects them to one another, and offers services that help them work together, we will all be able to make a greater impact in more communities and collectively nationwide. Together, we are smarter and more powerful than alone and only by staying loosely tied to each other will we be able to organize and launch the many needed approached to Halt the Harms of Fracking and Gas Development.

Here’s the dashboard of our progress toward the network’s 2017 goals so far.

In the first quarter of 2017 we had a few highlights:

Network-wide services survey: We developed, conducted and gathered results on a network-wide survey to gauge the interests of leaders and supporters on proposed new services for the year. The ideas all came from conversations, emails, and listening at conferences and events throughout 2016. Among the three categories of services (1) Relationship Building, 2) Funding and 3) Tools, resource sharing and capacity building), there were 11 different service ideas. 61 individuals from the network participated in the survey. The results from the survey will inform the network’s direction on services this year

First crowdfunding campaign: We supported leader Gillian Graber with her crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for her group, Protect PT and their upcoming legal needs in fighting proposed wells in their neighborhood. We supported her from the beginning in strategizing and planning for the campaign by helping her organize her donor list, create a plan and create different asks for the audience. The campaign has been live for 6 weeks and so far has raised more than $3,300. Learn more about Protect PT here.

Governance expansion: We started reaching out to active leaders in the network to grow the network’s governance structure and are excited to announce that we have six new members of the Core Advisory Group starting this year. Our new members are: Deirdre Lally (Clean Air Council, Shalefield Organizing Committee), Ranjana Bhandari (Liveable Arlington), Rebecca Ruggles (Maryland Environmental Health Network), Tim Whitehouse (Chesapeake PSR) and Gillian Graber (Protect PT, Protect Our Children Coalition).

Website upgrade planning: With the direction and vision of leader Ryan Clover-Owens, the network’s website will be getting an upgrade in Q2. This quarter we spent time brainstorming ways we can make the site more user friendly and best positioned to serve leaders and connect them to one another. We will be conducting usability sessions with a focus group of ten different leaders in Q2 to test the new upgraded site. Stay tuned for more updates.

We look forward to making more progress on all of these goals in coming weeks. As always, if you have questions or want more information, reach out at info@halttheharm.net. If you are interested in this help or getting involved with any of these specific efforts follow the links below.