Building the CASE for Community: 2025-2030 Strategic Plan

Spur Local is excited to share our new five-year strategic plan. While the plan is new, it builds on the 20+ year history of our work to uplift, connect, celebrate, and support the Greater DC region. We are renewing our commitment to building the CASE for community.

The serviceberry tree above is a good representation of this work. From a tiny seed, it blossoms into a full tree that represents hope, perseverance, and renewal. It is one of the first local plants to blossom in the spring, indicating we have made it through winter. Its bloom is a small action that signals others to follow.

This work isn’t theoretical; we’re already doing it. Since 2003, our organization has raised over $70 million for local nonprofits, trained more than 30,000 nonprofit professionals, connected thousands of residents with causes they care about, and highlighted the stories of those working in our region who are often overlooked.

At Spur Local, we believe that community has the power to spark big change. As our work blossoms, we hope others will join us in this renewal and growth. Over the next five years, we will:

• Create more lasting relationships between nonprofits, community members, and each other,
• Drive more resources and awareness to local nonprofits,
• Streamline how nonprofits can find the relevant and timely resources they need, and
• Increase support for local nonprofits through storytelling and community engagement.

As one of our first steps toward centering nonprofits’ voices in all that we do, we are launching the Nonprofit Leadership Council, ensuring that Spur Local centers nonprofit partners in our advocacy and programming. We are thrilled to work with the ten local leaders on our inaugural council and appreciate the accountability and guidance they will provide our team.

By connecting community members through volunteering, learning about the region, and engaging deeply, we will strengthen civic engagement and foster a commitment to being in relationship with one another. In coalition, Spur Local will advocate for and with local nonprofits and communities. And because we invest in the people who power this region, we will serve leaders and nonprofit workers through individual and group wellness programs, leadership development, cohorts, and customized professional development so they can advance their organizations, ultimately advancing the region.

The Greater Washington region is unique, strong, vibrant, curious, and committed. Stories matter, and Spur Local will tell ours with a purpose. This plan isn’t just a direction for what we do, but a call to action for you too: a call to all those who care about this community to take small actions and plant seeds now, so that our region blossoms into the community we need and hope for tomorrow.

Our power is community. Our power is local. And, our power is growing. We invite you to join us by staying in touch and supporting our work.

Traveling Players Alumnus Performs in Hamilton National Tour

Written and originally published by Traveling Players Ensemble

Traveling Players alumnus, Kai Thomani Tshikosi, is taking to the stage on the National Tour of Hamilton, bringing Hercules Mulligan and James Madison to life. His journey from our stage to the spotlight is a testament to the training, passion, and dedication he started honing at Traveling Players. We couldn’t be more proud of Kai!

Tshikosi (right) backstage during ‘Hamilton’

Tshikosi was a student performer at Traveling Players Ensemble from 2006 – 2012, where he went on his first-ever performance tours as an actor. He spent three years as a member of the Shakespeare Troupe, an advanced audition-based summer conservatory where high school students take a full-length Shakespearean play on a pre-professional tour to theatres all over the region. As a member of Shakespeare Troupe, he played Macbeth (Macbeth), Leontes (The Winter’s Tale), and Biron (Love’s Labor’s Lost), and performed at more than a dozen theatres, including the Kimball Theatre in Williamsburg and Lime Kiln Amphitheatre. He concluded his education at Traveling Players with a performance of Othello, in which he played the title role.

Said Tshikosi about his time at Traveling Players, “Traveling Players is probably more singularly responsible for my artistic and social development than any other space I was able to grow in as a child. It incubated and deepened my love of text and poetry, taught me the meaning of ensemble, instilled in me the values of rigor and teamwork. It introduced me to friends who more than a decade on are still several of the closest people to my heart. Most importantly, it was the place I felt most safe, most able to be myself and to grow into who I was becoming.”

Tshikosi (right) in Traveling Players’ 2009 production of ‘Macbeth’

Tshikosi continued his education at Emerson College in Boston, MA. He graduated in 2015 with a BA in Acting and a concentration in Global/Post-colonial studies. He then furthered his education as a graduate student at Brown University, where he earned his MFA in Acting in 2023. At Brown, Tshikosi performed in various plays and worked as a director, educator, and fight and intimacy choreographer.

Tshikosi has been a working actor in various productions along the Northeast coast. Some recent credits include: Pirelli (Sweeney Todd) at Trinity Repertory Company, Tybalt (Romeo & Juliet) at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and Oberon (Midsummer Night’s Dream) at Shakespeare & Company.

Currently, Tshikosi is working on the Hamilton National Tour in the Angelica cast. He will be performing as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison for the duration of the tour, which will be in Charlotte, NC from January 7 – February 2.

Other Hamilton tour locations include: Greenville, SC; Memphis, TN; Houston, TX; Austin, TX; New Orleans, LA; Chattanooga, TN; Omaha, NE; East Lansing, MI; Des Moines, IA; Cleveland, OH; Columbus, OH; Grand Rapids, MI; Ottawa, ON.

You can find more information about his credits and contact Tshikosi on his website.

Tshikosi with Traveling Players’ Founder, Jeanne E. Harrison, on the set of ‘Hamilton’

Recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of 25 model “Summer Schools for the Arts,” Traveling Players is dedicated to training students in grades 2-12 in theatre. Now in its 23rd year, the company has grown from a summer camp of 18 students to a year-round theatrical community engaging 1000 students annually. Founded on belief in the imagination, wit, and honesty of teenagers, Traveling Players’ programs help students find their voice through bold ensemble-based acting classes and theatre productions that emphasize connection and community.

Students interested in training with the company can take classes year-round at the Traveling Players Studio in Tysons Corner Center, including their day camp for grades 2-5. Over the summer, they also offer sleepaway camps & residential acting conservatories based in VA’s Northern Neck, right on the Rappahannock River.

In 2020-21, Traveling Players received the ArtsFairfax Arts Education Award.