Project Impact

A self-directed evaluation of the impact of the Ford Institute for Community Building

The Ford Institute for Community Building (Ford Institute) plays a key role in achieving The Ford Family Foundation’s mission of “successful citizens and vital rural communities.” Launched in 2002, five years after the creation of the current Foundation, the Ford Institute began its work by investing in leadership development across rural Oregon. After the arrival of the current Foundation president, Anne Kubisch, in 2013 and the Ford Institute director, Roque Barros, in 2014, the Ford Institute began transitioning to a new approach to community building.

The Ford Institute for Community Building works to create and support vital rural communities. Across rural Oregon and Siskiyou County, Calif., the role of the Ford Institute is to ask open-ended questions, help communities recognize their assets, foster new connections, encourage planning and visioning, provide funding support at appropriate junctures, and perhaps most importantly, honor the pace and agency of the community.

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