Olympia's Cultural Access Advisory Board approves its 2024 work plan

Olympia's Cultural Access Advisory Board approved its annual work plan on Thursday, February 1. It outlines ongoing tasks such as advising on cultural programs and supporting community outreach efforts.

Cultural Access Program Manager Marygrace Goddu outlined the board's ongoing work guided by the program's three main goals:

• Deliver cultural programs to the community.
• Ensure the expenditures of Olympia Cultural Access Program dollars and other resources are invested based on the priorities and commitments made to voters by the City of Olympia.
• Support communications and public outreach/education in the community.

Goddu said ongoing work, such as engaging in continuous improvement efforts and preparing annual funding recommendations, helps achieve this goal of responsible stewardship of funds.

Goddu said recurring activities like advising on cultural programs and supporting school cultural access programs support this goal of keeping the public informed and accessing cultural opportunities.

One of the key focus areas outlined for 2024 was to guide the successful establishment of the inaugural funding cycle for Inspire Olympia. The benchmark for measuring progress on this goal was the number and quality of applicants in the first cohort and applicant feedback on the application experience.

Another focus area for this year was to review the effectiveness of the inaugural Inspire Olympia funding cycle toward achieving the program's goals of promoting equity and access. The board would do this by conducting a continuous improvement (CI) analysis of the first cohort of funded organizations and their public programs. As part of this analysis, the board would examine data on the demographic profile of funded groups and who in the community was served or may have been missing from access to cultural opportunities through these initial programs. This review process would help evaluate progress on equity and inclusion and identify any areas for enhancement in future funding cycles.

The third focus was to lay the groundwork for a robust Cultural Access in Public Schools (CAPS) program beginning in 2025.

Goddu mentioned that the board intends to build relationships in 2024 with the Olympia School District, principals, teachers and Parent Teacher Organizations (PTOs) to help coordinate cultural programming in future years. It also aims to develop helpful practices and resources to support cultural organizations partnering with schools.