Board Candidate Strategic Brief

JUST AROUND THE BEND

Board Opportunity Brief – 2026 Growth Chapter

WHAT CLEMENT WATERS BUILDS

Clement Waters Retreat strengthens health and community resilience through upstream, culturally grounded care. Our work centers nature-based wellness: relationship with land, food-growing access, reflective life skills, and small-group community gathering. These methods reliant on relationship and cultures support people before strain becomes crisis. We work in partnership with marginalized communities, honoring the lived knowledge, generational historic understanding, and place-based wisdom of community individuals as essential public health assets.

OUR THEORY OF CHANGE

Clement Waters advances public health by backing community-delivered practical, culturally relevant methods that people readily adopt and sustain — because they came up with the idea.

People practice what feels familiar, respectful, and safe.
Low-cost methods scale by way of trust, relationship, and word of mouth.
Consistent availability increases public health resilience over time.
Community-borne practices strengthen adherence and longevity.
Crisis prevention is strong in the presence of belonging, dignity, and shared agency.

This approach keeps Clement Waters at the leading edge of social change practice in the Plains and Midwest regions.

WHAT STRENGTHENED IN 2025

Over the past year, Clement Waters:

Completed portfolio alignment around a clear theory of change
Strengthened governance, operational practices, and fiscal oversight
Clarified program boundaries and cultural commitments
Prepared systems and partnerships for sustainable expansion

This work positioned the organization for confident growth.

WHAT'S EXPANDING IN 2026

In 2026, Clement Waters enters a renewed period of public service:

Community partners are asking for services first offered before and during the pandemic.
Calls for innovative public health crisis prevention activities are growing.
Cross-sector partnerships are opening new pathways for impact.
The organization is ready to grow thoughtfully, with integrity.

THE BOARD IN THIS CHAPTER OF GROWTH

Board service at Clement Waters focuses on stewardship and connection.

Board members:

Strengthen networks across business, civic, and philanthropic sectors
Advocate for upstream prevention as a public good
Open doors to aligned partners and collaborators
Protect the integrity of culturally grounded practice
Support leadership through sound governance and long-range thinking
Bolster fiscal sustainability by connecting the cause to key believers.

Most best-practice alignment work is already in place, thanks to the work of the board in prior years. This chapter stands on that solid work to center relationship-building, advocacy, and sustainability.