Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Fall 2022 Cobscook Currents, the bi-annual newsletter of Cobscook Institute. “Wake” is the theme of this edition. Its dual meanings: “remembrance” and “return to consciousness” can be traced in the lines of the articles that follow. In 2001, during a retreat dedicated to articulating the values of Cobscook, Wayne Newell, a co-founder, inspired the group to place “love” as the central hub of all other facets of our guiding values. We remember Wayne and other important friends recently departed in this edition.

Conditions in our natural and social systems serve as a wakeup call for us all. Outcomes at the national and global levels will ultimately be a reflection of what we are able to realize individually and at the community level. Cobscook Institute was created and is sustained by local folks as a place where the diverse people of our region can come together in an environment of respect, dignity, and honor in a way that yields transformation for the individual and the community.

At the level of local communities, especially rural communities, we often find ourselves in the wake of decisions made elsewhere and over which it can seem we have little control. However, the solutions to these problems – problems as enormous as loss of basic human rights, intolerance of diversity, economic stagnation, ecological devastation, or racism in all of its overt and insidious forms – cannot and should not be counted on to come from somewhere else. We hold the solutions to the problems we face. We can be successful in solving our problems by relying on the strength, resilience, and cooperative spirit that has been endemic to our place and people. Cobscook is a manifestation of those virtues and a place for us to exercise and amplify them.

In this issue of Cobscook Currents, we highlight programs, practices, issues, and developments within Cobscook that illustrate our ongoing commitment to addressing contemporary issues through innovation and collaboration. Our Access Fund removes barriers to participation in Cobscook programs. We highlight our ongoing partnership with the Traveling Rainbow Project and the important work they’re doing to provide youth and young adults in our community with a creative space for inclusive celebration. The shared and distributed leadership model our board and staff have adopted reflects Cobscook’s core values and distributing power within community. And, as we wake to a new decade of innovation and impact, we remember friends of Cobscook who have passed on recently and honor their contributions to Cobscook and to community. Time really is a river flowing. We are both honored and grateful to be sharing the journey today with you.

All together now,

Alan Furth

Co-Founder and Board Member