1. Overview

WHAT IS COMPASS?

COMPASS (Comprehensive plan Outreach for Meaningful Public Action & Sustainable Solutions) is an interactive, informative climate exercise, designed to engage community members in conversation and mutual learning about climate change in San Juan County. One of our goals is to gather meaningful comments for the Climate Element of the Comprehensive Plan and empower future engagement.

Developed by a small team led by Faith Van De Putte, Chom Greacen and Nikyta Palmisani through the Madrona Institute and in partnership with Friends of the San Juans and family resource centers, COMPASS is supported by a Department of Commerce grant to expand public participation in the Comprehensive Plan process.

To learn more about COMPASS, click here for a more detailed description of COMPASS and its framework. 

*NEW* You can now download COMPASS materials (presentation slides, card decks, and facilitation notes) so you can use them as a resource for starting conversations with your friends and family. 

 

2. Upcoming

Opportunity to comment at the Planning Commission's meeting on Friday March 21, 8.30am

Focus group meetings in collaboration with the SJC Department of Climate and Sustainability and family resource centers on San Juan, Orcas and Lopez islands.

3/28 San Juan (in English)

4/3 Orcas (2 sessions in English) 

4/16 Lopez (in Spanish) 

4/17 Lopez (in English) 

4/24 San Juan (in Spanish) 

We have wrapped up four community-wide events:

LOPEZ: Friday February 21, 6-8 PM at Lopez Center for Community & the Arts

SHAW: Monday March 3, 3:30-5:30 PM at Shaw Community Building

ORCAS ISLAND: Sat March 8, 3-5 PM at Parish Hall

SAN JUAN: Sun March 9, 1-3 PM at San Juan Island Grange Hall

Focus group meetings in collaboration with the county and family resource centers on San Juan, Lopez and Orcas islands

These sessions were a success. See our report below. 

 

3. Report

More than 150 participants from Lopez, Shaw, Orcas, and San Juan have participated in Climate COMPASS thus far. During these sessions, islanders generated ideas and suggestions on county climate policies and actions which we gathered and compiled into a report. 

Download our REPORT which details all the comments, categorize them and rank them based on their frequency of mentions. See which ideas are of top priority for our community.

 

4. Links & Resources

Useful links & resources

  1. SJC: Draft Climate Element

  2. Our proposed revisions to the Climate Element to align the draft with priorities from community input

  3. Planning Commission's March 21st meeting agenda. Click here for info on how to comment or join the meeting

  4. SJC: 2025 Comprehensive Plan update


Complete & updated list of links and resources can be found here or by scanning the QR Code or by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/climatecompass-sjc

 

5. Contact

Questions & Comments

Please contact us if you have questions/comments or would like to sign up to receive updates and notifications of upcoming events or opportunities to comment on the draft Climate Element of the Comp Plan or Climate Action Plan. 

Email: climatecompass.sjc@gmail.com