The process of shaping Shift’s culture with CoCreate Work led to the implementation of 10% Teams, which are, according to Shift’s founder Karen Zeribi,  “a way for us, as a small organization, to use the pockets of availability and energy we have to lean into the things that people are really interested in.”  The 10% Team structure gives all staff the opportunity to work together to create and put into practice policies and structures that support Shift’s culture and mission, enabling us to take ownership of Shift’s values and priorities.

10% Team in Focus: Community Partnerships

The Community Partnership team’s goals are to take ownership, champion inclusivity, and see the whole person, all core Shift principles.  The purpose of this team is to reflect Shift’s values through the actions they take in working with and engaging our community.

As we begin a new year, the Community Partnerships team reflects on their major accomplishments of 2021:

• • They gathered ideas about how to engage in community engagement as a remote team, planning to take advantage of the fact that our team is spread out across the US.
    
    
  • They offered every Seattle-based team member a subscription to Ridwell, a waste removal company with a commitment to helping to safely dispose of hard-to-toss items (e.g., batteries). At Shift, we understand that strong, healthy communities are about more than health services and schools. We believe that strong communities are also invested in safeguarding the environment. Ridwell’s approach to recycling or reusing collected materials inspires us to do all that we can to be responsible consumers
    
    
  • They donated to two amazing organizations (Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWa) and FareStart). These two organizations are aligned with Shift’s mission and vision. They both focus on capacity building, diversity, inclusion, and community to meet the needs of the most marginalized. We are proud to support their work through Shift Annual Giving.
    
    
  • They developed a strong approach to determining how they will use financial donations for Shift Annual Giving, focusing on how our donation could have the biggest impact. In 2021 they focused on local NGOs that may not receive as many donations as larger, national partners.

Goals for 2022 include:

• • The Community Partnerships team wants to find even more ways to serve the communities where Shift employees live. In 2021, they asked the Shift team to think about places where they could share their knowledge and skills. In 2022, they are looking forward to a more systematic approach through ideas such as a ‘Shift Volunteer Day’ during planned in-person team meetings. 
    
    
  • They are looking forward to further refining their community engagement strategy. They have identified several areas where Shift team members might be able to share their expertise on a pro bono basis. For example, they are considering how to package Shift’s current free website offerings into a ‘CI 101’ course for organizations that do not have the financial backing of larger donors.
    
    
  • They are looking forward to further exploring how Shift’s donations can go further. They are currently researching organizations for Shift Annual Giving later this year, focusing again on areas and organizations where our dollars can have the most impact.