PHILIPSBURG:--- As of January 6th Ms. Cassandra Richardson will follow up Melanie Choisy to become the NPOwer Project Coordinator. NPOwer was launched by Foresee Foundation at the end of 2018 with the financial support of the Dutch Disaster Fund.
NPOwer’s aim is to strengthen the capacity of local NGOs and forge more collaboration and communication through its online database network of active organizations. Through workshops, webinars, training, and lectures, NPOwer intends to empower St. Maarten’s organizations in their communal missions. Furthermore, with the NPOwer website databank and Community Service Facebook page, which shows all things NGOs and NPOs passionately do on St. Maarten, NPOwer also encourages more relationships with residents, tourists, and charitable organizations alike.
Cassandra Richardson is a native of the island of St. Maarten/St. Martin and received her academic degrees in the US and Canada, respectively. After completing her second Master's degree in Canada, she worked in the Canadian NGO sector and as a community arts advocate for 11 years before deciding to bring back her expertise and love for community building to St. Maarten, her home of origin.
Her background and skills in Social Work, community arts and communication skills are the right ingredients for a new career opportunity. The experiences in the NGO sector in St. Maarten and Canada inspire her to continually find innovative ways to support multisectoral initiatives and community-led efforts to motivate and sustain positive change. One of Cassandra’s passions is to build relationships between partners at all levels – from individuals to local partners and global organizations – and coordinate their efforts towards a common goal. She has played a foundational role in her previous roles as Executive Director of the Safe Haven Foundation, in Canada as a Program Manager for several social programs, and as a student active in the student body in the United States, towards these efforts and looks forward to continue strengthening relationships in the NGO sector on St. Maarten through NPOwer.
In this new capacity, she will start taking up the task to organize a one day conference for the NGO sector on February 22nd, 2020, expand the online NGO website and database and organize capacity strengthening workshops and training for all those in the community who are affiliated with non-profit organizations.
Jose Sommers, President of The Foresee Foundation expressed 4C board’s excitement to have Ms. Richardson on board and is looking forward to her support in the further building of our NGO sector. More information on NPOwer and the St. Maarten NGO sector can be found on the website http://www.npowersxm.com/ and the Facebook page ‘SXM community Service Organizations’, link https://www.facebook.com/groups/sxmcsos/.
