Fabiola Casas- Lifetime of Service Leadership
COLLEAGUE YEAR: 2007
PLACEMENT: Peace Corps
LOCATION: Togo
CURRENTLY: Program Specialist, City of Portland Water Bureau
“To ‘Imagine Tomorrow Together’ you need to surround yourself with people who believe that another way is possible,” says Fabiola Casas. “When you are the only person believing it, it can feel very isolating. In community, you can feed each other’s imagination.”
Following her Peace Corps time in Togo, where she was Girls Education and Empowerment Community Organizer, Fabiola lived in New York City, Chicago, and London. “The Krista Foundation community has built my resilience in these different and challenging spaces,” she says. “It has been my safety net.”
Along the way, Fabiola built her skills working with youth and community-based programs, using her Krista Leadership grant to attend training with the Christian Community Development Association. Now, as a Financial Assistance Program Specialist for the City of Portland Water Bureau, she focuses on affordability around water and sewer services.
“I’m learning that poverty originates in the way that systems are structured,” she says. “How is our program structured? How accessible is it? Who are we serving and who are we leaving out? The Krista Foundation has given me a framework to give language to questions like these.”
As a past member of the Krista Colleague Leadership Council, Fabiola appreciates that connecting with Colleagues re-connects her with herself. “I can show up as myself, and learn about how I’ve changed over time.”