Meet Organizational Member: The Townies

The Basics! Tell us your name, organization and title.

Kim Maxwell

• The Townies, Inc., Executive Director
• Kim Maxwell Studio, Founder/Principal
• The Townies Podcast, Creator/Producer
• Ojai Playwrights Conference, Co-Founder/Youth Program Director

Tell us about yourself, and your organization’s mission.

The Townies, Inc. was established this year to unify Kim Maxwell Studio and The Townies Podcast under one nonprofit, powerhouse, storytelling roof -- with our collective philanthropic eye on the prize of social change.

Our mission is to connect people, one story at a time. With particular emphasis on developing and amplifying the voices of diverse and marginalized communities, The Townies, Inc. uses its expertise in crafting and broadcasting the personal story to inspire conversations rooted in equity, empathy and social justice.

Kim Maxwell is the Founder/Executive Director of The Townies, Inc. She is a producer, director, writer, mother, teacher, wife, founder/principal at Kim Maxwell Studio and creator/producer of The Townies Podcast. She is co-founder of the Ojai Playwrights Conference, serving as board member and director of its Youth Program for 20-years. Kim is also co-founder and served as co-artistic director of Theater 150 for 11-years.

Kim’s transformative style of teaching has inspired absolute beginners and professional actors alike. With her compassionate guidance, students undertake the fulfilling and transformative process of discovering, developing and performing their own stories. From preteens to senior citizens, Kim’s students, over a thousand in number, have gathered in living rooms, theaters, and even detention centers throughout Los Angeles and Ventura Counties to share their stories and have their voices heard.

In 30 years of serving her community, Kim Maxwell has produced three successful theater companies, 32 stage productions, 28 fundraisers, 82 readings, 12 educational outreach programs, and more than 3,500 individual pieces of original material produced in over 150 workshop productions. In the last year she has raised thousands of dollars in scholarship money to “ensure a classroom that represents the great diversity of economic status, sexual orientation, race, and background that we see in our beloved 805 community.” Kim has also volunteered hundreds of hours to community organizations ranging from public and private schools, to multiple local non-profits, such as the Mixteco/Indigenous Community Organizing Project, MICOP.

As former MICOP employee Elizabeth Villa writes, “Kim is a gift to those she works with. She instills empowerment in her students by teaching them to believe in themselves. Her genius as a teacher lies in her natural ability to provide students the methods to shine a light on the gifts they already possess.”

What’s happening at The Townies - recent highlights, milestones or upcoming events?

Highlights, Milestones & Awards

• NAWBOVC Visionary of the Year Award, 2018
  Kim was most recently awarded Visionary of the Year by The National Women’s Business Association (Ventura County) at their 19th Annual BRAVO Awards.
  "This video is made possible by NAWBO Ventura County and was created and produced by Brent Winebrenner Productions in partnership with Coverly Professional Services."
  
• Ojai Quarterly Cover Story, 2017
  The Townies Podcast was featured as the cover story of the Fall 2017 issue of the Ojai Quarterly.
• City of Ojai Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013
  In 2013, Kim was honored with the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award from the City of Ojai for her myriad contributions and creative impact on the performing arts in Ojai.

Upcoming Events & Workshops

• Ojai Playwrights Conference Youth Workshop (Show: Sat, Aug 11 at 10AM)
  A week-long youth workshop at this nationally-acclaimed new works festival. Students will write, develop, and perform their own original material while working with such theatrical luminaries as Bill Cain, Jon Robin Bates, Danai Gurira and Zachary Quinto.
• Cinderblock Bookshelves (Shows: Sept 14 & 15)
  10 year anniversary performance of singer/songwriter Rain Perry’s one-woman show Cinderblock Bookshelves: A Guide for Children of Fame-Obsessed Bohemian Nomads.
• Small Town, Big Stories (Shows: Sept 29 & Dec 29)
  A series showing off stories that students performed in the long forgotten pre-podcast days to be experienced all over again and recorded so their brave and beautiful words can live on in infamy.
• Find Your Voice Retreat with Kim Maxwell & Gloria Miele, Ph.D (Retreat: October 26 - 28)
  A wildly inspiring, fun and rejuvenating weekend where your personal stories collide with your personal strengths to launch your vision loudly and unapologetically into the world.
• The Townies Abroad Program (Coming Soon)

Any episodes that are particularly special to you, or you recommend to our readers?

We’re just about to take a hiatus to produce and launch Season 2 so it’s actually the perfect time to get caught up on all of Season 1!

Here are a few of our favorites -- but unsurprisingly we recommend them all...THE TOWNIES PODCAST, Season 1
(Available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Podbay and more!)

• Episode 1: THIS LIFE OF OURS
  The genesis of our podcast, full of hilarious and touching stories about our glorious 805.
• Episode 8: THE AGENCY OF WOMEN
  Stories by, for, and about powerful women taking on the world.
• Episode 16: DEARLY DEPARTED
  An episode in memoriam of our loved and lost community members.
• Episode 18: JUST OUT IN JAX
  The first in our artist interview series with monster storyteller, non-profit icon and LGBTQIA+ advocate, Doug Green.
• Episode 31: NO PLACE LIKE HOME
  Our most recent release featuring stories about being home, missing home and finding home... wherever that may be.

Anything else you’d like to add?

If you like the sound of all this, you can:

1. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, your phone’s Podcast app, Stitcher, SoundCloud and more.
2. Become a Townie yourself and sign up to take a Kim’s class in the fall!
3. Or if you prefer sitting in the audience to being on stage, come attend our next live performance!

Check out the studio’s website for more information on the podcast, classes and upcoming shows: https://www.kimmaxwellstudio.com/workshops/

Why did you think it was important to become an organizational member of the Center for Nonprofit Leadership?

AUN APRENDO, translated from Spanish means, “I am still learning.”

In the nonprofit sector, “There is always more to learn” is a massive understatement. So why not learn from the best? Industry leaders that want nothing more than for the sector and your organization to thrive make a fabulous and supportive community to be a part of.

We are members at the Center for Nonprofit Leadership because it makes us better at everything we do.

What do you value most about your membership?

So many things! We love being regularly immersed in the inspiring collaborations that revolve around the Center for Nonprofit Leadership. We love taking workshops and sending our staff and interns to them -- learning the newest trends and strategies, which lead to opportunities, partnerships and invaluable guidance from the best the industry has to offer.

What would you tell others who are thinking of becoming members?

DO IT. The community, the talent, the passion -- heck the Lynda.com membership alone is worth the price of admission. It’s pretty much the most effective nonprofit dime you can spend.

It’s not just about investing in ourselves and our organizations, it’s about investing in the long term health of the nonprofit sector in Ventura County as a whole.

At a recent workshop Dena Jenson loudly and unapologetically quoted some FAB philanthropist with a resounding, “We all do better -- when we all do better.”

And that is a true thing.

“We all do better -- when we all do better.”

So, you should join -- and we should all do better.