Genesis Block Member Profile: Cultivating the Collective in Cape Fear
“Changing the world is a team sport.” This quote by Cape Fear Collective CEO Patrick Brien, lends insight on the vision he has for the Cape Fear region. Cape Fear Collective is redefining what a town square looks like in our community, serving as a place where all people, organizations, and ideas can come together to effect real, lasting, and systemic change.
By merging cutting edge data science with an emphasis on equity and the lived experience of our most marginalized communities, the Cape Fear Collective supports Southeastern North Carolina’s front line organizations in combating poverty, racism, poor health and education outcomes, and socio-economic disparities.
We had the chance to speak with CEO Patrick Brien on his role at Cape Fear Collective and the organizations mission.
What is Cape Fear Collective and what are the goals of the organization?
Brien: Founded in 2019, the Cape Fear Collective (CFC) is a collective impact and data science nonprofit backbone organization based in Wilmington, North Carolina. Born out of the corporate sector, CFC’s mission is to scale big data, fundraising, social innovation, and large-scale initiative management to a six-county region in Southeastern North Carolina. CFC employs data scientists, strategists, journalists, and process improvement experts who partner with anchor institutions from across the region. Together, they create sustainable impact programs that address equitable social progress across a variety of sectors including economic development, health and human services, climate change, and housing.
How have you adapted to the disruption of COVID19 and how do you see it impacting your organization?
Brien: COVID-19 has caused us to pivot into a near-term support role for nonprofit and service organizations on the frontlines of this pandemic. Instead of 100% of our focus being on long-term strategic initiatives and data collection, we’ve shifted some of our efforts into adding administrative horsepower into things like the Stay Neighbor platform rollout, food systems response, and fundraising. We’ve also sped up our workforce development and economic inclusion planning process so that we can work with our local partners and businesses to prepare for a lengthy and equitable economic recovery. On the data side, our team has been supporting COVID-19 data collection and analyzing 2–1–1 hotline data with the United Way to monitor community needs. We’re also keeping an eye on important longer term insights such as the region’s census response rate and building out our centralized health and economic data platform.
Why did you choose Genesis Block?
Brien: CFC and Genesis Block have a lot of mission alignment. Both organizations are trying to build a movement at the intersection of innovation, equity, and the lived experience. Partnering with Genesis Block allowed us to join an ecosystem we believed in that is led by entrepreneurs like Girard and Tracey who we could count on and who would make us better stewards of our work.
The Cape Fear Collective Voice provides a platform to amplify the voices of citizens, practitioners, and advocates on the front lines of the fight to address structural inequities and injustices facing the Cape Fear Region.
Genesis Block is proud to partner with Cape Fear Collective and welcome them to our community collaborative.
Website: https://capefearcollective.org/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cape-fear-collective/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capefearcollective
Twitter: https://twitter.com/capefearcollect
Instagram: instagram.com/capefearcollective/
Email: info@capefearcollective.org
