Team Highlight: Joe

leer en español

This month, we catch up with Joe, a somewhat recent Bendite who has jumped in and become an integral part of the Thrive team and our community.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, Joe!

I moved to Bend about 6 months ago after driving across the country from Burlington, Vermont with my partner. After growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts and living in Vermont for 9 years, I was ready for a new adventure a little further from home. We came here mainly for skiing and to be closer to old friends, but I'm very excited for hiking, floating, concerts, and everything else that summer brings. My hobbies lately have included birdwatching, playing on a softball team with friends, forgetting that the Celtics were eliminated from the playoffs, and starting a tiny vegetable garden on my porch.

What brought you to Thrive Central Oregon?

I was drawn to Thrive by the prospect of getting to spend my work days contributing to solutions for the big problems in my community that I was already thinking about in my spare time, like economic inequity and housing. I especially appreciate Thrive's emphasis on client-led services and helping our neighbors navigate the complicated processes of accessing resources - people know their own situations and needs best, and I like that my role is to help my neighbors navigate and learn the process of meeting those needs.

What do you like about the team so far?

The Thrive team has been so welcoming and supportive since day one. I genuinely enjoy spending time with everyone at work and outside of it - you know you've found a good team when you're excited to see your colleagues on Monday mornings. The thing that makes our team special to me is that we are so diverse in our experiences, personalities, and strengths, but we share many core values and complement each other's skill sets.

Do you have a favorite book, song or quote you'd like to share?

I read Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler a few months ago, and I haven't stopped thinking about it - it's a dystopian novel written 30 years ago, but it takes place in 2025. In some ways, it's eerily accurate in predicting what has gone wrong over the past few decades in real life, but it's also a story of self-determination and adapting to change to build a better world. One quote that I particularly love is,

"All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change."