The CAN Project is designed to be a network of activities, programs and resources within a community. The goal isn't to create a one-time collection of sterile calendars and posts. The idea is to be a maintainable resource evolving through the participation of community members, programs, services and their staff. In order to do this, we need to get people, programs, and communities involved in the project.
The first way for us to do this is to create a focus group of core community networks that can benefit from the CAN Project while participating in the development of its evolution. The above diagram shows key community networks we are looking to team up with to develop the CAN Project. These networks all rely on community members’ programs and are a key to community development. By working with these networks across the nation we will not only raise the funding needed to maintain and grow the CAN Project, we will also develop the project to meet the needs of these networks. By asking for $30 from each of these entities, we are making participation affordable and manageable. This also helps eliminate the need for a large group of sponsors that can affect website speed, development, and in some cases, could work against the overall goal of a business. By working with the above-named groups to raise funds and develop programs we can meet specific needs on a local level.
In the past, I have worked with each of these networks in various projects across numerous communities. Each of them has the ability to enhance the CAN Project and what we are looking to do throughout the community. The CAN Project was able to assist them and their missions. It is our belief that asking for their participation at $30, or even at $3 a month, will be received much better than asking for the $360,000 needed to develop project. Now it is all about getting 12,000 individuals and businesses to be a part prior to January 2017.