Listen To Shafter

The Shafter Listener

January 2022

Happy New Year and a huge thank-you to all of our friends, family and supporters who helped us get through 2021 with our most active and successful year yet! We are celebrating our year by reflecting on our successful campaign to Save the Shafter Library, the installation of a new mural by artist Lorena Castillo, the announcement of the the awarded $3.8 million park grant that we partnered with the city to help apply for, Little Free Libraries full of books and the ongoing success of our annual Christmas Store program.

As always, if you haven't yet, please take a few minutes to respond to our anonymous community surveys!

What We're Working On

Following a successful campaign to “Save the Shafter Library” we are working on ideas to celebrate the opening of Shafter’s own library, as well the GAF expansion that will finish up later this year. We’ve also established a formal partnership with the local Friends of the Shafter Library group to facilitate their continued work throughout the transition process.
We are partnering with a local team who is preparing the way for a new thrift store in town, in partnership with the Mennonite Central Committee. Thrift stores offer a great way to reduce waste, offer quality products back to the community and support development efforts at the same time.
After another successful Shafter Christmas Store event, the work continues! We are preparing to conduct a small quality study so that participants can let us know how we can improve the service even more in the future.

What We're Inspired By

In addition to naming our own Katie Wiebe as “Citizen of the Year”, the Shafter Chamber of Commerce is awarding the Arts Group Award to Alondra Montavo, Sierra Albiar, Khloe Verdugo, Senyia Schluter and Brinlee Swann, who are the young ladies responsible for the vision and installation of a new mural behind La Hacienda Market on James St. and Central Ave.
The enthusiasm and energy of this group of girls have been an inspiration and motivation for us throughout a year which presented many challenges to our own growing organization. We are excited about the impact they will continue to have on their community in the years ahead.

What We're Dreaming Of

About a year ago we assisted the City of Shafter with a grant proposal for a new park in the neighborhood along the northern end of Hwy 43. We were excited to learn that the effort was successful, despite a very competitive pool of applicants, and are now dreaming of ways to further involve community members to help make it their own. Send us your ideas!
We’re considering starting up some sort of informal gathering of community development problem-solvers to periodically get together to share their personal experiences and lean on each other for assistance and advice. It would be open to anyone who is working on projects to benefit their community. Let us know if this sounds interesting to you or if you know someone who should be included!