Why We're Here
Mission:
Our mission is to facilitate connections and cultivate collaborations between local creatives, corporations, and community entities who share our drive for resource stewardship. In other words, we're here to help others turn local waste into valuable community resources.
Vision:
Wouldn't it be incredible if there was no such thing as trash? We want to see a world in which everyone and everything is valued, simply by nature of existing. While we don't pretend to have all the answers, we hope our work will get us one step closer to that reality.
Our Values
Community
If we had to pick one (and thankfully we don't), community would be our highest value. It's in our name! Everything we do is in service of connection and bringing people together, because we know that each person's quality of life is directly tied to their connection to self and others.
Curiosity
Let the questions fly! We aspire to be as curious as we once were as small children. Being curious, asking questions, stopping to look at the dew drops on the grass, helps all of us to appreciate the beauty of life and begin creating new possibilities.
Inclusivity
The more unique experiences, backgrounds, and knowledge that comes together in a community, the stronger and more resilient the community. We whole-heartedly welcome differences in opinions, beliefs, identities, backgrounds, and life experiences. If you have a pulse, you are welcome in our community!
Innovation
Juicy ideas start with asking questions and become a reality when someone is brave enough to try something new. None of us would be here today without innovation, and we believe all problems can be solved with enough curiosity, creativity, innovation, and collaboration.
Transparency
A cornerstone of community building is transparency. We want to be as open, honest, and upfront as we possibly can be with our work, resources, and obstacles. Trust is not something we take lightly, and we vow to do our best to create and maintain the public's trust in our organization. If you have concerns about our transparency, please let us know!
Message from the Founder
Jessica Simpkins, MD
As a girl with undiagnosed ADHD, I grew up telling myself I was a piece of trash; a waste of space. I looked for external validation from others to tell me I was worthy, which led me to make decisions that weren't authentically aligned with my interests and values. I graduated from medical school in 2020 as a medical doctor, despite vowing as a child I would never be a doctor (like my mom). In 2021, I was so miserable living out the expectations of others that I began to wish I wasn't alive. That was the wakeup call I needed to begin reconnecting with my authentic self and discovering what was valuable to me.
After resigning from medicine, I found myself living in Norwich, CT, a community that was also reinventing itself. I began to recognize the truth that we all have value, even if we don't recognize it in ourselves or others. This is where Let's Build a Community (LBAC) got its roots and was first founded.
In 2022, LBAC and I moved to Spokane, WA and we began rooting in the Inland Northwest. We've been exposed to lots of phenomenal businesses and organizations who have shown us we can create wonderful resources from things we have previously discarded. We wanted to help shed light on these terrific people and spark more conversations around how we can uncover value in what we already have. This led us to begin our efforts in researching how we can create value from Spokane County's glass waste.
During the summer of 2023, we created emergency programming to help low-income individuals with health conditions affected by the dangerous air quality during the Gray and Oregon fires in Spokane County. With the help of several local facebook groups and our local Home Depot (Jay Sirmans is a super hero!), we were able to deploy N-95 masks and air scrubbers to 76 individuals in 24 low-income households across our county who were affected by the wild fire smoke.
Presently we are working to build up our board, start looking for volunteers, and push forward with our efforts to turn our local glass waste into resources we can all benefit from. It's been an honor to serve as the founder of LBAC and I can't wait to see how things continue to unfold in our community!