Nonprofit Consortium of St. Croix (USVI)

We did it! This September, St. Croix Foundation’s Nonprofit Consortium celebrated five years of collective service, impact, and leadership in the U.S. Virgin Islands! Despite a protracted recovery from the 2017 hurricanes, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, since our first table conversations with 50+ local nonprofits back in 2016, the Consortium has evolved into one of the Foundation’s most important investments and a vital Community Asset. Through intentional collaboration around missions, programming, advocacy, and fundraising, the members of the Consortium have built dynamic relationships, enduring national partnerships, and organizational and cross-sector capacity to serve and give voice to the People most vulnerable and hardest hit by ongoing crises.

As populations the world over continue to face unprecedented challenges, and as we locally close out another Hurricane Season while continuing to serve on the frontlines of COVID, we see the evidence of what collaboration (rooted in Community) can truly accomplish.

And so, from all of us at St. Croix Foundation and on behalf of the members of the Nonprofit Consortium, we would like to extend our deepest appreciation to GlobalGiving. Because of your early, pioneering spirit and trust-based philanthropy, the Nonprofit Consortium has now engaged 50+ organizations, of which 30 are official members. Combined, the Consortium has had a service reach of over 10,000 people and created 10+ new national funding partnerships that are even now supporting new systems of resilience. As the Consortium prepares for the next 5 years and beyond, we look back with gratitude on the investment that has been made in the strengthening of our Community.

Highlighting 5 Years of Ingenuity in the Civic Sector
On September 16^th, St. Croix Foundation’s Nonprofit Consortium hosted our virtual 5th Anniversary Community Presentation to showcase the investments, impact, and collaborative service of our Nonprofit Partners. The presentation brought together 75+ attendees and speakers--- and of course, all 30 members of the Nonprofit Consortium. Partners such as Susan Taylor Batten of the Association of Black Foundation Executives and Donna Callejon from GlobalGiving spoke about the lessons our Civic Sector, unified in such a unique format, had to share with the entire field of Philanthropy.

The presentation highlighted the Foundation’s strategic work to raise the collective profile and impact of our Civic Sector partners--- and to get the U.S. Virgin Islands onto the philanthropic funding map. Guest speakers and members spoke about fostering new partnerships that collected critical data on residents and nonprofit capacity to rebuild after the hurricanes, created safety nets for unmet needs, and connected nonprofits to resources that helped them advocate for their organizations and the people they serve. Presenters spoke of a growing network of national private funders and the technical competencies around collaboration, community organizing, social justice, and systems thinking that the Nonprofit Consortium helped build. From the words of Consortium members themselves, we can get a glimpse of the impact:

• St. Croix Foundation has been instrumental in helping us to expand our dental services. ~ Frederiksted Health Center
• We have, in our first six months of service, served 25 homeless individuals and 1,500 meals at our location; we’ve moved 9 people to permanent housing, we’ve placed 6 people in full-time employment, 2 people in part-time employment, and 2 people in job training.  All it took was a nudge from a local foundation to help us open.  ~Liberty Place.

In the past 5 years, the Nonprofit Consortium has been put to the test. From two Category 5 Hurricanes in 2017 to COVID-19 and the racial justice movements of last summer, it has met the challenge, pivoted, grown, and is now a model of unified Civic Leadership and People Power.

Watch our Community Impact Presentation here:https://www.facebook.com/stcroix.fnd.1/videos/602247214481269

Reimaging a Sustainable St. Croix Rooted in Community Voice"
In our last update, we reported on our Engage VI Environmental Virtual Town Halls, a three-part series that took place over the summer to address environmental hazards spurred by the reopening of Limetree Bay Refinery and Terminals. As a geographically and politically isolated territory of the U.S., environmental and health issues are compounded for the People of St. Croix, and our objective was simple but profound: ensure Community Voice take center stage and create space for open, honest and transparent dialogue between regulators, stakeholders, and residents.

In the final Town Hall on July 29th, St. Croix Foundation and Nonprofit Consortium Members from the Environmental Sector - St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA), Crucian Heritage And Nature Tourism (CHANT), & the Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition (VIGFC) – opened the floor to reimagine the future.

Following the first and second Town Halls on emergency response and the environmental impacts of heavy industry and agriculture, the theme for the third town hall in the series was aptly entitled Reimagining A Sustainable Future: Balancing Economic Promise & Environmental Stewardship. With panelists from the Economic Development Authority, U.V.I. Research and Technology Park joined by the Partnership for Southern Equity, the discussion centered around exploring a future independent of heavy industry that represents a progressive and justice-focused landscape while balancing economic promise and environmental justice.

Over the course of the entire series, guest panelists included high ranking executives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control, V.I.T.E.M.A., VI Dept. of Planning and Natural Resources, VI Dept. of Health, VI Dept. of Agriculture, the 34th Legislature of the Virgin Islands, VI Economic Development Authority, U.V.I. Research and Technology Park, and the Partnership for Southern Equity. In total, over 100 people attended the third Town Hall, and many attendees have signed up to engage around working groups that could potentially actualize some of the themes discussed in the final town hall series.

View our third virtual Town Hall here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq2oOzNeR24

The Foundation and the Environmental Sector Receive Hive Fund Award
We are also happy to report another milestone! In the last quarter, the Foundation and members of the Environmental Sector – C.H.A.N.T., S.E.A., and V.I.G.F.C. – were awarded a three-year $225,000 Grant by the Hive Fund in recognition of the Environmental Sector’s collaborative efforts and vision as outlined in a joint case for support.  The award’s purpose is to empower the Sector, which “advocates for and mobilizes around a community vision rooted in environmental justice, placing a historically marginalized community in charge of decision-making around energy supply, environment, health, workforce, and community development.” The grant represents one of the key goals set forth five years ago when the Consortium was launched- increase funding for small nonprofits through coalesced, collaborative funding requests. It is one of the first major funding wins a Sector of our Consortium!

In alignment with the HIVE Fund’s priority of “shaping new clean and equitable economies,” funding will be used to build capacity around community organizing and movement building and general operating support. Through the competencies and collaborations nurtured in the Consortium, the Environmental Sector has been active in responding to issues of environmental justice and equity specifically as it pertains to the Limetree Bay Oil Refinery. The sector intends to capitalize on the work completed over the summer and continue empowering Community to hold policymakers accountable through efforts supported by the in-development ‘working groups’. The Foundation thanks the Hive Fund and its civic partners for their commitment to funding Black-led and Black serving environmental justice causes!

Thank you, GlobalGiving!
From the Foundation’s inception 31 years ago, nonprofits have been at the center of everything we do. But, over the past 5 years, we have harnessed extraordinary wisdom about our Community through our Nonprofit Consortium. Today, we are fostering and cultivating the most inspirational, intentional and dynamic culture of collaboration in the U.S. Virgin Islands. GlobalGiving has been a thought partner, an advocate, and a trust-based funder – and we can confidently say that it’s really just the beginning!

February 27 – June 25, 2021

In our last quarterly report, we told you about St. Croix Foundation’s work through the Nonprofit Consortium to create pathways toward greater engagement in the civic sector. In the several months since, and just as the 2021 Hurricane Season began and the world’s attention on climate focuses, the Nonprofit Consortium’s values of equity, collaboration, and community have never been more critical.

As we approach the Nonprofit Consortium’s 5th Anniversary this August 2021, St. Croix Foundation’s pledge to hold space for community action, to keep sacred the civic sector, and to empower local nonprofits has been put to the test and the importance of collective voice proven. In this last quarter alone, the Nonprofit Consortium has convened 19 times, with all four sectors represented: arts and culture, health and human welfare, youth and education, and the natural and built environs. In all, 20+ organizations sat at the table to continue vital case development while conducting community organization and advocacy around environmental justice.

The stakes have never been higher for our People. With no federal voting power, the voices of our civic organizations offer a voice and vision that encompasses sustainable, equitable systems--- of food, energy, education, and economics. To our family at GlobalGiving, we extend our deepest appreciation for sharing our vision!

Nonprofit Consortium Hosts Town Halls Around Environmental Justice
While many might not be able to pick St. Croix out on a world map, the U.S. Virgin Islands certainly has national relevance. In addition to being the only predominantly black jurisdiction (under the U.S. Flag) without any federal voting rights, this 84 square mile island was once home to the largest oil refinery in the world, based on throughput. It also has the distinction of enduring one of the largest (and quietest) oil spills in American history, to the tune of 43 million gallons that slowly leaked into the island’s largest freshwater aquifer. Because of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ vulnerability relative to climate change, striking a balance between environmental justice and sustainable development was a top priority to the Nonprofit Consortium from its inception. In fact, we began exploring new models of sustainability and excavating our past exploitive environmental injustices at our Environmental Forum in 2019.

In February of 2021, the 50-year-old refinery, which had shuttered in 2012, reopened under new ownership and within the first two months of operation, two chemical exigences occurred that rained oil onto people’s homes, cars, and into their cisterns (rain catchment systems located under most homes which serve as the primary water source for island residents). Having witnessed residents being left breathless for months from highly noxious gases wafting through downwind neighborhoods after the restart, St. Croix Foundation and members of the Nonprofit Consortium stepped forward. With little to no acknowledgment from the private and public sector and in the face of peoples’ pleas for help, we recognized that philanthropy had a moral imperative to lead courageously.

Empowering Community with Data and Resources
On Thursday, May 13th at 6pm St. Croix Foundation and Nonprofit Consortium Members from the Environmental Sectors - St. Croix Environmental Association, Crucian Heritage And Nature Tourism CHANT, & Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition - hosted its first Engage VI Environmental Virtual Town Hall to discuss recent environmental and health impacts from Limetree Bay Refinery.

Invitations were extended to Limetree Bay Terminals, LLC, US Environmental Protection Agency, the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, the Virgin Islands Department of Health, the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency, and the Legislature to provide information on EPA regulations, and individual agency scope and responsibility relative to health and safety. While refinery representatives were not present, legal experts and both local and federal agency heads confirmed and spoke at the Town Hall. The chat was full of questions about the scope of damages and their impact on individual and environmental health. In total, the NPC’s First Town Hall in this three-part series hosted over 300 participants in the live session, 860 views of the Town Hall recording, and nearly 200 engagements, amplifications, and reactions.

The following day, the EPA announced that the refinery would close for 60 days, citing an imminent health threat, invoking powers under the Clean Air Act which had only exercised eleven times before.

As shared in prior reports to our GlobalGiving family, one of the Nonprofit Consortium’s outcomes has been the development of an official website, EngageVI.org., which now houses vital community resources, including emergency contacts for community health reporting.

A live recording of the first Virtual Town Hall can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u52T08p8FU

Making Space for Marginalized Voices
One month later, on June 10, St. Croix Environmental Association, C.H.A.N.T., the Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition and St. Croix Foundation hosted the second Virtual Town Hall, entitled, “Heavy Industry and the Food We Eat: Impacts on Agriculture and Fishers on St. Croix.”

This special Town Hall included speakers Dr. David Bond, of Bennington College & Mr. Olasee Davis, from the University of the Virgin Islands who provided a history of heavy industry on St. Croix and (ask Jonathan if he can summarize this in a compelling way with NPC at the center).

Once again, pre-prepared questions were addressed to the Department of Agriculture and the 80+ attendees  asked various questions, including:

• Why was the island of St. Croix, as agricultural land, chosen to be a place to create such heavy environmental polluting and destructive industries?
• How can we qualify for Superfund status to achieve levels of remediation?
• I just purchased well water, with the comment generated today should I be concerned about possible hidden health concerns from possible contamination, is well contamination St. Croix wide?

With nearly 1000 views and over 113 engagements, the convening was well-received:

• “Thank you all for organizing and bringing us together.”
• “Thank you to all the presenters and to those who organized this forum to provide information. I am looking forward to hearing of a solution to this health issue.”

Creating a Sustainable Vision
The third and final session of the three-part Engage VI Environmental Town Hall series is scheduled for July 15, 2021. The discussion will center around articulating a community vision for a prosperous and sustainable future given the external environments, community values, health, all of the priorities represented by the Nonprofit Consortium’s four sectors. Making this convening that much more crucial was the announcement on June 21, 2021 that due to financial difficulties, the refinery may close operations permanently in September 2021. This development has been at the center of our dialogue around reimagining a future independent of heavy industry. We have also considered how dramatically this scenario mirrors the economic fallout of the initial closure of the refinery in 2012. What this demands of our community and, our sector, is a progressive and justice-focused reimaging that balances economic promise and environmental stewardship. As a result, the prospective theme of the final session is Reimagining A Sustainable Future: Balancing Economic Promise & Environmental Stewardship.

Holding the Vision
The work described here didn’t begin in response to the oil refinery nor Hurricanes Maria and Irma or even Covid-19. It began as a result of a deep understanding of what resilience in isolated communities can look like. Framed by the realities of political status, climate change, economics, geography, and rooted deeply in cultural heritage, the Nonprofit Consortium is coalescing civic power, empowering the disenfranchised, and giving Voice to the vulnerable. Our GlobalGiving family has made it all possible. THANK YOU!