CATS dissolves non-profit status

The Community Action Team of Sisters (CATS) Board of Directors announced this month that it will dissolve its non-profit status and transfer its remaining assets to a community grant fund to be managed by the City of Sisters. The funds will be dedicated to support community efforts in line with the CATS mission: leadership development, community visioning, and collaboration between community leaders in the greater Sisters area.

CATS was formed in 1998 with assistance from a U.S. Forest Service grant for rural development. The citizens originally involved focused on the development of a strategic vision for the Sisters community.

CATS then obtained its non-profit status in 1999. The mission of CATS has been to help shape and achieve a desired future for the greater Sisters community by being a catalyst for community involvement, partnerships and action.

Since its inception, CATS has worked with a wide variety of partners to help organize, facilitate or sponsor numerous community events, projects and programs. In earlier days CATS helped during the start-up phases of the Sisters Organization for Activities & Recreation (SOAR), today known as the Sisters Park & Recreation District, and the startup of the Sisters Community Trails organization, which is today known as the Sisters Trails Alliance.

CATS helped acquire a large tent, which is often used for a variety of community events like the recent Sisters Folk Festival. CATS also worked with the Sisters School District and other partners to start and support a variety of after-school programs, and teen substance abuse and pregnancy prevention programs.

CATS was also involved in various projects to help alleviate the root causes of poverty, development of economic strategies to create family wage jobs, and provide affordable housing - specifically the development of Tamarack Village.

The organization helped sponsor English learning and other programs to help the Hispanic members of our community adjust to life in Central Oregon. And CATS also assisted in the startup and support of some of the arts programs and projects for which the Sisters community is now well known.

More recently CATS initiated the Greater Sisters Community Visioning Project conducted in 2006-2007 and the latest community-wide update to the Sisters Economic Development Strategic Action Plan in 2009. The Sisters Vision Statement, the Sisters Brand, the five-year commitment by the Ford Family Foundation for leadership development classes, and the Sisters Community Garden, as well as the creation of a business relocation packet are examples of some of the projects that evolved from that visioning project.

CATS also convened a series of Community Leadership Summits attended by up to 100 community leaders and interested citizens. The outcome of these summits led to a group-determined need to focus on economic development and eventually the updating to the Strategic Action Plan for Economic Development.

The CATS Board made the difficult decision to dissolve its non-profit status after much deliberation.

In the wake of the CATS separation a few years ago from the Central Oregon Partnership (now known as Partnership to End Poverty), stable funding for a paid part-time staff member was lost.

The all-volunteer board continued to collaborate, but came to realize the administrative burden needed to sustain its non-profit status was not the best way to use its energy and remaining funds to serve the greater Sisters community. The CATS members will continue to meet more informally as a newly comprised group for ongoing collaboration.

The Sisters City Council voted on September 30 to accept the remaining CATS funds. The remaining funds will soon be available through the City of Sisters on a grant basis.