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Welcome to Our Newest Client—The James House By John Sarvay | March 13, 2009
One of the first emails I received after leaving Luck Stone -- and in the midst of pondering my next steps -- was a lead on a year-long capacity building "Request for Qualifications" bid issued by a non-profit in the Hopewell area. The James House describes itself as being "the only accredited program helping people who have been affected by sexual and domestic violence in the Tri-Cities area—including the communities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg, Dinwiddie, Prince George, Surry, Enon, and Matoaca, Virginia, as well as the soldiers and their families in Fort Lee." It's CEO, Chana Ramsey, has been a driving force in its success over the years and it is ready to take another step toward securing its future of serving one of Central Virginia's growing corners. I didn't know what an RFQ was in November. I learned a lot over the past four months. This afternoon, I received word that The James House has awarded Floricane the contract to support it's future development.
Exciting news, right? From a lot of perspectives. First off, the work itself. Nikole, my wife, spent a large swath of her professional career working in service to organizations focused on stopping sexual and domestic violence, and many of our friends work for nonprofits and governmental agencies doing this work. During my organizational development training at Georgetown, I partnered with a classmate to do work for Quin Rivers/Project Hope, which does similar work east of Richmond. My intention with Floricane has been to create space where the work we do enhances the health and civic fabric of our communities -- business, nonprofit, cultural, social. But I'm equally excited that I get to partner with two hugely talented individuals, who have agreed to sign onto the project. Anne Chamberlain is an executive coach and OD guru; I met Anne at Luck Stone, where she did some amazing work as a consultant for our human resource and information technology teams. She also helped Nikole make her own career transition several years ago. Kristen Kaplan is one of the founding partners behind what is now known as Hands On Greater Richmond, and has recently stepped out on her own -- bringing her expertise in project management, nonprofit organizations and strategy to the broader world. Anne will be providing coaching support for the project, and Kristen and I intend to partner closely through the whole effort. We'll get started in earnest in early April with the Discovery phase of this project -- meeting individually with board members, staff, community partners and hopefully some clients served by The James House. In the meantime, I'm pleased to introduce the Floricane community to our newest partner, The James House.Next entry: How to Have a Conversation: Just Do It
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