The Innovation, Collaboration, & Exploration Project

In the fall of 2019 when the world was just about ready to rotate on its axis, Sonora Area Foundation extended an invitation, in celebration of its 30th Anniversary, to non-profits throughout Tuolumne County to participate in a grant application to innovate and collaborate for success. The Foundation applied for an $1100 grant to pursue the idea of pulling together the other non-profit organizations to explore the idea that we might collaborate on some joint projects and share information.

We were finally able to put this concept together with the help of an expert convenor, Roger Marsh, of Fairfield, California.  We soon found out that there are seven other non-profits all working toward the common goal of providing funds, and activities that strengthen learning for Summerville students. With that common goal uniting us, we met for the first time on Zoom to explore the idea that we might be able to assist one another going forward.

The members are 7 non-profit organizations, all working toward the benefit of Summerville High School Students:

With the expertise of Roger we found that we did, indeed, have much the same issues, that some of us had training and collected data that we could share and at least 50 ideas were brought forth to explore in a future meeting.  We did meet again on May 12 and in person this time. Ideas were flying fast and furious as that meeting progressed.

We set some goals for this year and recently one of the Foundation Board Members, Vicki Young, came up with the idea for the name of our group:  Ursa Major!

We think it fits our group of seven to a tee. Ursa Major is Greek for The Big Bear, it is easily the most popular constellation of stars known to mankind today.  It’s popular because it can be seen around the world for most of the year. Secondly, it was used by ancient navigators as a tool to locate the true north. And, finally, it contains seven brightly visible stars known as The Big Dipper which resembles a cooking pot.

That group of seven organizations strives to be a cooking pot of innovation, collaboration, and exploration. When we are together we search for ideas on how we can support each other and in turn provide the highest support possible for Summerville students.