The Collaborative for Community Trust was a longtime member of the Network – in name only. This year, after tightening up our membership to include groups that were actually doing something, the Collaborative chose not to re-up. We weren’t surprised.

According to the mission statement printed in our directory, the Collaborative “is owner and steward of the Modjeska Monteith Simkins Center for Justice, Ethics and Human Rights. The mission dictates creating new synergies among new populations for concrete outcomes in social change and protection of human rights around the world.” Pretty tall order for an organization with a staff of one.

The Collaborative and the Network were born in the same year, 1995. The organization was among our first members, and for awhile we held our monthly Midlands meetings there. It was the only time we ever saw or heard from Director Catherine Fleming Bruce. We could never figure out what, exactly, she was doing with the buildings she was charged with managing nor why she kept getting funded, especially since we know so many of our groups are doing so much more on so much less. It was frustrating to watch.

So now it appears that the Collaborative has been run into a ditch. How this could have gone on so long without anyone blowing the whistle is a mystery. What a sad turn for a project that had such great potential and the support of the city. Sadder still is the squandering of Ms. Simkins’ legacy.

Read Kevin Fisher’s column about the mess in this week’s Free Times.

Becci Robbins