Community Consulting for Government Fuckery
Ummm, what exactly is consulting for Government Fuckery?
What is Government Fuckery?
Anytime a government (or anyone for that matter) offers you assistance by telling you what they have come to do for you to fix the problem they think you're facing-- rather than asking you what you see as your communities challenges and asking you what supports you would like to see implemented to address them -- that is what Pamela refers to as government fuckery.
It's not a reflection on the intentions of government, they mean well, Bless Their Hearts, yet we now get it that "old school" government processes often end up sustaining the struggle rather than assisting individuals and families to truly thrive. There are better, more effective ways to offer support.
We now understand that a collaborative model is much more effective in assisting communities, families, and individuals to thrive. Yet changing to a new way of being doesn't happen by itself. This is where Pamela steps in with over 25 years of experience utilizing skills specifically created to assist groups to identify and prioritize their needs and design strategies for changing processes at all levels of government to better address those needs.
Pamela's Many Hats...
Pamela helps citizens, communities, cities, counties, non-profits, and grassroots groups refine their message, plan their outreach strategies, and lead their groups to consensus. Pamela has enjoyed a diverse career assisting groups in a variety of ways including working as a project coordinator at the Russ Reid Company, planning and implementing direct response marketing fundraising strategies raising millions of dollars and acquiring millions of donors for for St. Jude Children's Hospital, Habitat for Humanity, and World Vision. Pamela is a skilled policy analyst and writer, marketer, researcher, photographer, mediator, consensus builder, and facilitator.
Pamela is a licensed R.N. and Public Health Nurse with a deep passion for social justice and equity. Pamela is certified in Design Thinking, proficient at the World Café Method, experienced leading restorative justice circles, organizes meaningful policy tours, and is a skilled grant writer.
Pamela assists individuals, community groups, non-profits, and all levels of government in identifying effective means of opening collaborative lines of communication, building trust, and identify community priorities.
Although Pamela wears many hats, she is not a lobbyist.
Pamela's Path to Gov't Fuckery Consulting
It all began in August 1998 with Pamela Rasada's acceptance into the Jesse Marvin Unruh Assembly Fellowship Program. After spending a year as a Fellow in the California State Assembly working for Assemblywoman Audie Bock (the first and only Green Party member to hold office in California's legislature) Pamela accepted a permanent position as a legislative aide, for then Assemblywoman Carole Migden before moving away from legislative work.
Fiercely non-partisan, Pamela left the legislature finding her long-term career home as a public policy analyst and researcher at the California State Library, California Research Bureau; a non-partisan public policy research facility providing support to the California Governor and Legislature. Pamela briefly left the Bureau ( 2012 & 2016) to run the California Governor's Interagency Council on Veterans (CA-ICV) for Governor Jerry Brown. After a long and satisfying career, Pamela retired from public service in April 2024.
Pamela's Approach
Throughout her career, Pamela witnessed countless frustrated and overwhelmed community members (including many local government staff and officials) as they struggled to find a way to be heard and heeded by officials at all levels of Government. Over and over, well-meaning government officials come into communities and cultures telling them what their problems are and how they are going to help them, without asking the community what they feel would be most useful. A less than helpful situation that does nothing to build and support trust.
Using strategies refined over decades working to bring groups to consensus on challenging issues, Pamela walks individuals & groups through discussions and processes that identify their needs and prioritize potential mitigations. Pamela is also available as a grant writer and event/fundraising coordinator.
Whether you are a community seeking to bring in more funding to support mitigations to homelessness, or a county level entity trying to get higher level government officials to recognize rural areas as underserved populations, Pamela can assist your community or group in developing a framework for coordinating your approach to all levels of government in seeking the policy changes needed to address your communities specific needs.
Connect with Pamela Rasada and Start Strategizing Today
