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ere in the Chippewa Valley, we can be thankful there’s no shortage of remarkable people fostering growth in our communities through truly amazing work. Individuals from all walks of life, with diverse passions and varied resources, put in significant effort every day to improve this place and the lives of people who live here. To celebrate the kinds of leaders, thinkers, and doers who inspire others through this work and dedication, Volume One and Charter Bank launched the Chippewa Valley Vanguard Awards. These awards recognize high-level community achievers who have made a significant local impact in any number of disciplines, including the arts, entrepreneurship, social action,
government, education, philanthropy, health, business, and more. Nominations from the public yielded an impressive slate of candidates for this year’s awards. These honorees were then selected by a panel of established community leaders, and announced during the sold-out annual Best Night event, held Feb. 8 at the Lismore Hotel. Those honored here are just a few of the many individuals blazing a trail in the Valley as it grows into a vibrant, innovative, and healthy place to live. Visit VolumeOne.org/Vanguard to see videos of the honorees, as well as learn how you can nominate candidates for next year’s Vanguard Awards. We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface; there are many more stories to be told. –Nick Meyer
Read on to learn about the projects and progress spearheaded by this year’s honorees.
words L A U R E N F I S H E R
photos A N D R E A P A U L S E T H
design E R I C C H R I S T E N S O N + M A C K E N Z I E S L A T T E R Y
WATCH VIDEO PROFILES OF THIS YEAR’S CHIPPEWA VALLEY VANGUARD HONOREES AT VOLUMEONE.ORG/VANGUARD
“You certainly have to be willing to bring a lot of people to the table, to listen to lots of different perspectives and points of view, and then try to seek out those people who understand that those different points of view make us stronger.” Kimera Way is a key supporter of projects that move the Chippewa Valley community forward through her work as the president of the UW-Eau Claire Foundation. Way has been involved in many community development projects, including the creation of the Pablo Center at the Confluence, and continues to work toward big ideas such as the Sonnentag Event and Recreation Complex.
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ollaborations-r-us” is one of the ways Kimera Way, president of the UW-Eau Claire Foundation, refers to the organization she has worked for since 2001. When the needs of UW-Eau Claire converge with the needs of the greater community, as they are often wont to do, the Foundation is there and ready to bring a new project to life. Way has been part of the leadership in projects such as Converge Radio, and, in all its copper-clad glory, the Pablo Center at the Confluence. Way compares herself to Fiddler on the Roof’s matchmaker, Yenta. She connects people with the resources and contacts they need to complete their missions. “My job is to bring together great ideas and great projects with the resources to get them accomplished,” she said. The university and the city were both exploring the idea of building a new arts center, and Way knew they should combine their resources to achieve it. “Why would we do two parallel facilities that basically have the same goal when by working together we could have significantly more together than we can on our own,” Way said. “I think that has been the true mission of why the foundation working on behalf of the university has been an outreach to the community.” Way’s work continues with the development of the Haymarket Plaza and the planning of the Sonnentag Event and Recreation Complex. Way wakes up every morning with 100 new ideas, she said, and over the course of the day she works with others to identify which are strong, which need work, and what ideas others have in mind. Sometimes none of her plans are right for her team or their project; being a leader means recognizing that, and having the grace to move on to the best course of action. “You certainly have to be willing to bring a lot of people to the table, to listen to lots of different perspectives and points of view, and then
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try to seek out those people who understand that those different points of view make us stronger,” Way said.
friends are, it’s where my parents chose to move after we moved here,” Way said. “This is our home and we love this place.”
Her strength comes from many places, including the knowledge that failure is not an option. When the stakes are high, Way knows that she absolutely must come through with a completed project.
She believes that Eau Claire is a model for effective, cooperative community building.
“This isn’t just where I work, this is where my
“I hope that our effort with this project in the Confluence at the Pablo Center and the Haymarket Landing was certainly a catalyst to creating a can-do attitude.”
“I know that I’ve made a difference in someone’s life when I can see that they feel less stressed, when they feel happier, when they feel like they have a little bit of time and energy left over to do good for someone else.” Mike Cohoon is a driving force for housing accessibility through his work with Hope Village, which is growing into a community of tiny houses for people experiencing housing insecurity. Cohoon is a pastor for Landmark Christian Church in Lake Hallie. He collaborates with United Way, the Chippewa Falls Mission Coalition, and other organizations to help people in need.
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mall steps, when combined with a little bit of hope, can go a long way; Mike Cohoon is a walking demonstration of how effective that strategy is. A pastor for Landmark Christian Church in Lake Hallie, Cohoon is a leader involved with the development of Hope Village, a project to create a small community of tiny homes where people who are homeless in the Chippewa Valley can live while they get back on their feet. “We took this one little baby step at a time,” said Cohoon, who started the project in 2014 after the last homeless shelter in Chippewa County shut down. It started with a community forum, and with the help of volunteers, fundraising, and philanthropy, they have built nine houses, and are working on yet another. Eventually, Hope Village will consist of 12 tiny houses – each with a sleeping area, refrigerator, and microwave – as well as a community space with showers, laundry facilities, kitchen space, meeting rooms, and more.
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COHOON But Cohoon isn’t waiting for the project to be completed to extend a helping hand. The organization is using the finished tiny homes to offer a transitional housing program, complete with a human support system of mentors and friends. The program helps reconnect people with their health resources, with employment, with a permanent home, and with their loved ones. Sometimes, Cohoon even gets to see someone who was homeless move their things into a new apartment – a tangible measure of success. “I know that I’ve made a difference in someone’s life when I can see that they feel less stressed, when they feel happier, when they feel like they have a little bit of time and energy left over to do good for someone else,” he said. Cohoon and the volunteers he works with often have to build a tiny home without a blueprint. Each little residence is constructed on a trailer foundation, and each trailer that is donated to the cause is different.
Discovering the right way to use his resources to address the needs of others is Cohoon’s strong suit. He gathers groups of difference-makers and pushes them to try to achieve things they might not have believed themselves able to, forging strong teams who come up with creative ways to overcome any obstacle. “I see things that can be done and I feel that if I have the ability and I have been blessed, and I can gather a group of other people who feel the same way and we can do something, we should simply do it,” Cohoon said. Through his ministry and his volunteerism, Cohoon hopes to share the blessings he has been given with others, providing shelter, stability, and guidance to the people he works with. “The healthier our community can become, the healthier our families can become, the healthier our school system and educational system becomes,” Cohoon said. “The healthier we can become as a community, the better for everyone.”
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FERBER Sarah Ferber advocates for people who have been affected by the criminal justice system through her work as the associate director of EXPO.
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arah Ferber was struck by the unfairness of the justice system 10 years ago when she spent three months in jail for the first time. Now she fights to change that system into one that serves everyone who encounters it as a community advocate, nonprofit leader, and associate director of the criminal justice reform organization EXPO. At the time, Ferber was in jail with a black woman who had a familiar story; they had been sentenced to probation for similar crimes, and were arrested for committing similar offenses while on probation. Ferber believed hers was the worse of the two. “I thought for sure I was going to prison,” Ferber said. She had seen men go to prison for less. “I watched this African-American woman go to prison, and I got let out into treatment court. And it was the first time that I was really slapped in the face with how racist our justice system really is. … Why was I deemed more worthy of help than she was?” Ferber learned about EXPO in 2015, and has since worked with the organization as a volunteer, a regional leader, and now as associate director. “I’d always been somebody who wasn’t afraid to speak up,” Ferber said. “That had always been a blessing and a curse throughout my life, and it was like, ‘Oh, maybe this could be a place where that’s valued.’ ” She also serves on the board of Round Table Revival, a new Chippewa Valley nonprofit that helps people affected by the justice system advocate for themselves. With EXPO and Round Table Revival, Ferber
Through peer support, expanding access to resources, and increasing awareness, Ferber works to erase the stigmas and barriers people who have been incarcerated face as they rejoin their community.
“We listen to the people who are most impacted, who are living in the community and going through this stuff every day, and we ask them, ‘What do we need to change to make your life better?’ ”
works toward solutions to problems commonly faced by people who have been incarcerated. These efforts include projects such as Unlock the Vote, a campaign to restore voting rights to people who have served a prison sentence for a felony, and the Free Campaign, a group that focuses on amplifying the voices of women. Through Round Table Revival, she is exploring ways to cultivate social communities where exincarcerated people can thrive. “We don’t tell other people what issues we want them to work on,” Ferber said. “We listen to the people who are most impacted, who are living in the community and going through this stuff every day, and we ask them, ‘What do we need to change to make your life better?’ ” To get where she is today, Ferber has had to overcome her self-perception and how others see her. She sometimes wonders if she is the right person, if she is qualified to do what she is doing – a bit of imposter syndrome, she says. And she struggles with what she calls a “lifelong sentence” that comes with a felony conviction: People make assumptions about Ferber and others who have been in contact with the criminal justice system, which leads to limited housing opportunity, lack of trust, and other hurdles. But Ferber’s advice to others who are fighting against the same stigmas is this: “Don’t be afraid.” The criminal justice system can only continue to treat people unfairly if the citizens allow it to, she said. “When I found out that this was a way I could both own my own narrative and also make an impact on the way that people look at people like me, I was in,” she said. “I’m in all the way. And I haven’t looked back since.”