We founded UWC to provide teams with the necessary grounding and resources to improve strategic thinking, make better decisions, and ultimately increase their equity, their health and their success.
Since 2013, we’ve worked with teams all around the country to instill the tenets of adult learning, overcome organizational obstacles to success, and reinforce the values of equity and justice. Along our journey, we’ve gathered lessons we share through our monthly letter and we’ve gathered highly valuable tools in our Field Guide. It’s important to us to share these in a free, open-source way to help spread these great resources.
We partner with social enterprises and community organizations in three types of projects:
- Co-leading an organizational change project,
- Building the capacity of leaders to develop and execute change projects within
their team, - Coaching individual leaders one-on-one.
MEET NICO
My passion is helping teams discover new ways to work together at the intersection of identity, strategy and team development. My goal is to reshape behaviors, learning techniques and mindsets to maximize the impact of our work in the world. That’s why I founded Up With Community.
From Chicago, I discovered community organizing as the writer, director and producer of a one-woman skit about Saul Alinksy in high school. As I explored the foundations of social justice, especially in the histories of the Polish and Indian communities from which I hail, I developed a commitment to community organizing.
Between 2007 and 2010 I served as regional field director for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a project of Community Change, and in 2009 I co-founded the country’s second largest cell phone action network, authoring a definitive guide to online and offline organizing. I continued to deepen my understanding of community transformation as the State Director of the Maine League of Young Voters and as the Director of Strategy for the Institute for Local Self Reliance.
In 2013, my love of learning and coaching around social growth led me to found Up With Community.
I live in Lewiston, Maine–my heart’s home–with my husband, Ben, and our children. And note: These are all my actual cactus babies–come visit us and them at colabcreate.space.
OUR COMMUNITY
Every project we undertake is realized by the hard work and collaboration of our partners, team facilitators, coaches and consultants. We’re grateful to everyone we work with. UWC relies on the expertise and skill of the following team to curate, edit and distribute our videos, letters and online resources:
Maine Creative
Started in 2013 in Portland, Maine Creative brings design thinking to an array of services to enhance the style, function, reach and efficacy of our clients’ digital and brand assets.
Maine Creative focuses on social media management, advertising services and design. We’ve had the chance to work with incredible businesses and nonprofits in Maine and abroad and taken on unique and innovative projects.
Ashley Mills
Ashley’s work centers around providing dynamic solutions to individuals, teams and organizations that instill successful ongoing practices for endless growth and development. She has served as a consultant for numerous healthcare and nonprofit operations. In this role, Ashley has focused her attention on organizational growth and development, research, assessment and education. She has contributed over 10 years of professional experience working to serve vulnerable and under-served populations in her community and throughout the state of Maine. Read More
Susan Pollock
Small, independent bookkeeper providing bookkeeping services for a variety of small businesses and nonprofits since 2016. Working with all clients to bring affordable bookkeeping services that include:
- Accounts Payable & Accounts Receivables
- Banking and Account Reconciliations
- Data Entry to include projects
- Payroll Processing
- QuickBooks
- Excel spreadsheets
- Google Docs
- Dropbox
Ready to learn?
If it’s time to transform your team so they can transform the world, let’s connect.