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How Federal Funding Cuts Affect Clean Water Projects · Clean Water Conversations

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Clean Water Conversations is sponsored by Chesapeake Conservancy, working to conserve and restore the natural and cultural resources of the Chesapeake Bay watershed for the enjoyment and inspiration of this and future generations.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Chesapeake Conservancy, and now on to our show.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Alice and Today's conversation is slightly different than our normal episodes.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: We are discussing the current situation regarding the federal funding and Lancaster's collaborative network doing clean water work.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's an amazing network.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we're really excited to dive into some of what that provides for partner organizations.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now we are making a conscious effort to stay non-political in this conversation.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: As a network, it's our goal to bring people together and not create division.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what this episode is pretty much all about.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Today's conversation, we're really going to remind everyone about that strong supportive network that we can all rely on.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: But the reality of that is sometimes hard to pick apart or remind ourselves or even identify.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we hope today's conversation gives you a few nuggets of action items as well as some inspiration.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the why for this episode started with the executive orders that were released on February 28th, that that froze federal funding.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: But the why for the Lancaster Clean Water Partners is because we have this common goal of cleaning clear by 2040.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: So the reason that the network exists is that all of these partner organizations, we want to ensure that everyone has the capacity to get to that shared goal.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So if the why for the partners is cleaning clear by 2040, which allows us to talk about the why of today's episode, like you've just described, those events have really impacted our partner ability to do that clean water work.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I we want to get to the how of you all as partner organizations because we want to get closer to that why.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: You want to get closer to that why of Clean and Clear by 2040.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: The shared vision that includes things like using the common agenda, or it may include securing dollars to do the clean water work, or it may be strengthening relationships with partners and landowners.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's lots of how you, as partner organizations, are getting to that clean water goal.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the things that we do for continuous communications includes this podcast.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: So with that in mind, uh today's goals are for you, our partners, to know that we, the backbone, are here for you to strengthen the network by asking that you all take action.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to share some resources with you uh was from several partners like Choose Clean Water Coalition.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we want to make that how really easy.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So taking off uh the risk, taking away some of the fear factors of some of this, but also just adding some comfort to U.S.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: partner organizations.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: So here's what happened and where we are, at least for now.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: So as of today's recording, the executive orders were issued from the White House that paused or froze some of the federal funding sources or requested that agencies make personnel and budgetary changes.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: In today's conversation, we are not going to try and explain the why of those, because maybe you are impacted by this directly.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're impacted not directly, but you're starting to feel the ripple effects, or you are anticipating those effects coming soon.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: The ask of this related to all these things that have happened is that we all take action to support each other.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we acknowledge that some people may not know what that is or may not know how to do that yet.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a question, and I'm asking this because I'm pretty new to the conservation world.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't have a whole lot of history behind behind my knowledge base.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Has anything similar to this happened in the conservation world before?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: No, not exactly.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: We acknowledge that these are unprecedented times, and there have been and will continue to be some points of discomfort, of uneasiness, some unknowns, but we managed through experiences like COVID or funding changes in the past.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's been lots of times that funding situations have changed, permit requirements have changed, structural or processes changes have impacted the way that our partner organizations have had to do their work.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we reached out to a number of community members in all of those different times.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: We got creative and we kept moving forward.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the answer is no, this exact thing has not happened.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: However, we've made it through lots of versions of this.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's not easy, but we've made it through.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the network helps us do that.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I would add that one of the changes that's unique to this situation is that, well, looking at us right now, but also looking forward, the concern is partner organizations who maybe were receiving federal funding directly.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: They're in a tough spot.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that that's unprecedented.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: The concern grows for the small businesses and the local contractors who haven't felt all of those ripple effects yet from the pause on certain government reimbursements.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Not everything is in the same situation here.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it's changing all the time.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's it's part of those unknowns and the uneasiness.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we've been talking about the why and then the how, but the what, the what you are doing as partner organizations, you're still aiming towards that shared vision.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: The what you're doing may look different now.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: It might be restrategizing your 2025 operations plan.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: It might be that you have to readjust your budget.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: It might be touching base with partners or landowners because you have to deliver a different message than you did three months ago.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: But you're still their neighbor and a trusted partner organization.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: So the what can be uncharted territory or difficult.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: It might be more donor visits instead of grant reports.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: All of these are examples of change.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And change feels hard, no matter how big or small it is.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, I have a question.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm asking this because I just simply don't know the answer.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Can someone who has a project with frozen funding reach out for other funding opportunities to keep the crop the project moving forward?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: People are trying to find other ways to fund something that may be frozen.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: That may result in, like I said, more donor asks or visits.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: It may ask, make you ask something different of your board than you have in the past.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: It may be that a project has to pause, but sure, you can always be looking for other funding opportunities to keep a project moving forward.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to put pressure points in places that maybe we weren't anticipating them as a collective group in the past.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're talking about helping, reaching out, and leaning on partner organizations.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: If a partner organization has current funding, could they use some of that funding to help another partner's project?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's a unique way and a really collaborative way to offer if you're going to offer funding to something, it may require a change in your scope.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like just be aware that if you make a change in the budget to a project that you're doing, it you'll have to notify your funder or you'll have to look at the percentages allowed depending on the funding source.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you need a an official budget adjustment, but it can be a great way to reach out and support someone else doing similar work that could be in a different spot than they were three months ago.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that that falls under the question of what do we do now?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as a collaborative network, our role is always to support one another.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that right now is no different.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's actually even more important to use the community of support.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always advocating for the megaphone effect, which is basically taking the existing tools that we have through our partner organizations and amplifying them for what we're doing.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of a different take on it, but it's the same approach.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's using each other, leaning on those partner organizations to help us all get to that common goal.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I think in that we have to both practice self-care.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's important that we pause and breathe and not just react to everything.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: But it's also important that we be bold that we as a collective have always been saying we've got to think big, we've got to go bigger or we've got to ask bigger, we've got to be action-oriented.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So don't hold back on any of that.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Don't change those parts of how we operate.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we brought together a couple examples here to share with you from the Collective Impact Forum.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And these are some resources that they've been sharing in webinars and in some of their tools online.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So some of the specifics are what it means to assess and mitigate risk right now, both as an individual and as an organization.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Looking at how partner organizations with more power or flexibility can provide cover and protect others.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: We need to have honest conversations amongst our partners, including if you have a shared understanding around organization ethics and mission.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Those are a couple examples, a couple of bullet points that we wanted to share from a group that has been hosting these type of conversations.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you can find more on their website, and those will be in the notes of today's podcast as well.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And also in those notes are the website for the Choose Clean Water Coalition.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: They have a great page on their website, uh, which is uh choosecleanwater.org slash fundingfreeze.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um they have a lot of tools, a lot of updates.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's more than I can talk about in this in this little the table that they have of all the current status of funding sources that are relevant to Bay organizations is super helpful.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think just knowing that that exists so that you, as our Lancaster partner organizations, know we are not duplicating any of that.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: We are sending people to the Choose Clean Water Coalition website.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: They've got a great collection of resources.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I think it's really important to remember through all of this is that we're not alone.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that need for support and encouragement, that's that's the network.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: You're uh 100% on your megaphone call out.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I think still in relation to the what do we do now?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: What are you seeing, Ken?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: What are some of the ways that like it's the reality of what do we do now?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the biggest thing is we we have a network here for a reason, a collaborative network.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're all trying to get to the same, well, to to go back to clean and clear by 2040.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: We still need to get there regardless.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we will probably have to to pivot and change the way that we raise funds.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we may have to change the way we think about things.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be flexible.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be we need to be able to adjust to to changing conditions.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Some organizations have had uh sessions where they will have a virtual call to reach out and connect with each other, an opportunity to, you know, just talk about pressure points and what are you what are you doing in this particular situation, just try to bounce each other off.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: But something to keep in mind that while that is a good tool, it may not be good news that you find from the other end, you know, because there is a lot of a lot of pressure that is evolving from this.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: So even if it's not good news, it's at least comforting to be around each other.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're spot on that the peer-to-peer connection makes such a difference here.
• 12:14
  unknown: Yeah.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we we like to talk about our list of awesomeness.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes this topic doesn't feel super awesome.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: However, the collaborative network that we all have built, the partner organizations, the backbone organization have put so much into this, and it's beautiful to be able to have it now to rely on.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: So a quote to kind of wrap us up here in today's conversation.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: So this is called the power of the collective, and it's by Joan Gary.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: We are a community of advocates, caregivers, and change makers.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: We are the safety net when the system fails and we have the power to make our voices heard.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: But let's use that power wisely and strategically.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Let's not just be reactive, let's be proactive.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Let's not just be service providers, let's be storytellers.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Let's not just be organizations, let's be a movement.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because when we come together, we don't just change the narrative, we change lives.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty powerful.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: I love Joan Gary, and the way that that resonates is important because it's true.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: In Lancaster, we get to work as the collective because we have put intention into it, we have put effort into it, and it's our reality now.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: So let's go with uh this collaborative work and continuing to move forward, continuing towards clean and clear for Lancaster waters by 2040.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you all so much for being part of this network.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we do appreciate each and every one of you.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that is our show.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: We will be back shortly with our next episode.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, folks, take care.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Bye, everybody.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: This episode of Clean Water Conversations is sponsored by Chesapeake Conservancy.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Conserve, restore, and empower with data.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And produced by Lancaster Clean Water Partners, striving for clean and clear waterways by 2040.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you have comments or suggestions for show topics or are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact us at info at Lancaster Cleanwater Partners dot com.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.