Today we’d like to introduce you to Em Johnson.
Em, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The inspiration for Blue Sky began in the 1990s, with the purchase of a piece of property in 2012 and the idea that a community organization might someday manage the land. Acquiring the 310-acre former ARCO headquarters of New Cuyama, CA, a regional family foundation made a legacy impact investment that became what we today call Blue Sky Center.
Early visions of Blue Sky began imagined the property as a site for demonstration—a campus that could model sustainable futures for rural places with shared histories of extractive industry. Architects and designers fueled these years of ideation through a series of design charrettes that eventually led to what became known as the “Master Plan.” These ambitious ideas were more utopic than realistic. The focus on Blue Sky’s potential as a property did, however, led to a process of renovation that continues today. Since 2012 we have largely repurposed ARCO’s former headquarters to create functional (and beautiful) office, warehouse, and studio spaces.
As our buildings became workplaces and the “Master Plan” met limits of reality, we needed to re-evaluate the scope of our work. Boots-on-the-ground community work began to root the organization in the realities of place and community. Our updated mission foregrounded the needs of the Cuyama Valley and the importance of community voice, participation, and ownership. With this local lens, we questioned how to keep our work specific to the Cuyama Valley while maintaining our regional network: partners and allies committed to directing their energy towards rural places and issues. The idea of scalability emerged: that our work could center local contexts while serving greater networks. We turned to look for help and share our own experiences with a field of people that share common ambitions and challenges.
Major Accomplishments between 2014-2018:
Receiving AmeriCorps VISTA grant to build organizational capacity through 2020; beginning experiments in earned revenue models; developing a relationship with Isla Vista Screen Printing (later to branch into a Cuyama-specific company, High Desert Print Co.); forming a community advisory group to inform organizational structure and working values (until 2016); coordinating our 2017 Rural Summit; launching a mobile community kitchen, the Cuyama Kitchen, cultivating the Cuyama Valley Food Action Task Force, and publishing our first external reports for stakeholder and policy advocacy.
Today’s Mission: To strengthen our rural communities by supporting entrepreneurs and building our regional creative and economic resources.
Our newest mission reflects the complexities of rural communities, celebrating and building on the vibrance and strengths of those that live and work in the Cuyama Valley. We back up our new mission with a strategic plan, directly addressing the lessons behind the evolution of our work that will guide us as we continue to push our work to be more intentional, inclusive, and informed.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Being outsiders in our rural place and leading innovative economic investment strategies with a framework entrenched in systems design did not come without struggles and challenges; struggles that we face even today. As an entrepreneurial organization, we welcome these challenges and failures faced as valuable lessons learned on a pathway of resilient and inclusive strategies to ultimately spur community ownership. Some of the strategic issues that we are working to unpack are:
– Maintaining community trust.
– Ensuring input from community and stakeholders is inherent in our process.
– Documenting replicable programs: Blue Sky is still developing its “proof of concept” but needing to document and measure effectively in order to share replicable processes and systems.
– Rebranding the organization under economic development model and developing clear messaging.
– Investing in strong organizational leadership as well as appropriate staffing levels: moving from “start-up” to “maturing organization.”
– Defining clear and effective board roles: moving from “working board” to “governing board.”
– Developing organizational operating procedures and policies.
– Strengthening and diversifying funding capacity.
These issues are interrelated and each with multiple layers of complexity and opportunity. I am happy to talk more about one or two that you are interested in discussing.
Please tell us about Blue Sky Center.
Blue Sky Center’s mission is to strengthen our rural communities within the Cuyama Valley by supporting entrepreneurs and building our regional creative and economic resources, ultimately, building models for resilient, thriving, and inclusive rural economies.
Like so many places, New Cuyama and the Cuyama Valley face the impacts of globalization, namely when a single company once provided the majority of employment and infrastructural support. Depopulation across rural America has left communities to deal with inefficiencies of scale and underutilized, aging infrastructure, stymied by the ethos of “what used to be.” Rather than corporate or governmental leadership, rural communities often look to faith-based organizations, civic groups, and neighbors to carry the community safety net. By addressing the root causes of inequity within our rural places, community leaders can forge more effective public-private collaboration across all sectors, ultimately supporting rural opportunity and investment.
The Blue Sky Center facility is developing to be a cornerstone of small business and local economic progress for the Cuyama Valley communities. Our community steers the future of our valley through collaborative decision-making and ownership, becoming the vehicle of equitable investment for our existing economic sectors.
We accomplish this through:
– Using creative community engagement strategies to support housing and community infrastructure.
– Hosting rural practitioners to co-author impactful, progressive work with our community.
– Providing direct technical assistance to small manufacturers/enterprises.
– Researching food processing, aggregation, and distribution infrastructure.
– Developing space and amenities for small startups and existing businesses.
The Blue Sky Center is uniquely poised to be a space for innovation in rural investment as we are repurposing mid-century industrial spaces, once empowered by extractive industries, to become more inclusive and resilient spaces that celebrate small communities and businesses, rural spaces, and artisanal and pragmatic craftsmanship.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in Northeast Missouri in a small country town. My father built cedar homes for fisherman and travelers visiting the Mark Twain Lake. My mother, a dynamo nurse and family leader with the strongest work ethic and compassionate ethos of any individual I have ever met. Many days were spent isolated, with the wilderness and woods at my disposal. My family instilled passion into me; passion in music, ‘the blues’, in building community and self-resiliency. Looking back, I’ve always felt bigger than my surrounding and always seeking to witness more of the world. After college, it was like I was finally unleashed to go live in the world. I bought a one-way ticket to India. There, I lived and learned and found some career direction in empowering women in rural India to be the agents of change within their communities. I also spent a year growing my internal toolset through studying classical Yoga at an Ashram in Tamil Nadu. All these wonderings and projects, I’ve thrown myself completely into. I think a lot of these experiences have led to the work ethic and perhaps righteous stubbornness that possesses me today.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1000 Perkins Road, New Cuyama, CA 93254
- Website: blueskycenter.org
- Phone: 661-413-3005
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @blueskycenter
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madeincuyama/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/blueskycenter
Image Credit:
Jesus Fraye, Alex Nye, Marshall Birnbaum, Bash Please, Ryan Flanagan, Madison Kotak, Hipcamp
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
