June 26, 2026

Watch the full conversation: Community Dialogue with Faith Reeves and Jason Snodgrass

In this Community Dialogue, Faith Reeves, Director and Project Manager with FRAN, sits down with Jason Snodgrass, one of FRAN’s newest board members, to talk about observing, organizing, and acting on building systems of support in Fairfield.

From Florida to Fairfield

Jason and his wife Rachel moved to Fairfield from Jacksonville Beach, Florida after Rachel came here for a clinical rotation and found a hundred-year-old craftsman house she loved. Within days they had made an offer, and they have been part of the neighborhood ever since.

Jason brings a full toolkit to FRAN: Army veteran, university finance officer, and years of nonprofit leadership, including helping grow a veteran-focused organization from a small volunteer operation into something remarkable. His approach is simple. Notice a problem, figure out what it would take to fix it, and pull together the people who can help. “I might not be the smartest person to come up with a solution, but I can probably find somebody that can do it.”

That approach showed up early. Out walking their two English bulldogs after the snow melted, Jason and Rachel noticed how much dog waste and litter had accumulated in their neighborhood. A Facebook comment turned into a neighborhood cleanup with about 25 volunteers fanning out from the gazebo, collecting dog waste and thousands of cigarette butts in a single day.

What he cares about

Jason’s two biggest focus areas are housing and food access.

On housing, he points to the blocks around the square, where many homes are in serious disrepair. His concern goes beyond appearance: aging electrical systems, water intrusion, and structural problems make homes unsafe and, eventually, uninhabitable. From his board experience with an organization providing transitional housing for homeless veterans, he saw how often people lose housing not from disaster but from deferred repair. His goal is to help direct resources, including grants, to the people who need them most so they can stay in their homes safely. Fairfield has neighbors without stable housing like any other town, and keeping existing homes livable is one of the most practical ways to address it.

FRAN block parties: July through November

FRAN officially launched July 1 with a ribbon cutting at Central Park. Next up: two block parties in each of Fairfield’s five wards, running July 16 through November.

Each block party will include an educational component tied to FRAN’s focus areas: local food, critical home repair and energy-efficient housing, private land stewardship, land use, local enterprise, community connections, and waste management. Waste Management will be at the July 16 event with education on recycling.

As Jason puts it, the worst thing that can happen at a block party is that neighbors come together, have a good time, and leave with a new friend. If everyone also goes home having learned one new thing, that is a win.

About FRAN

The Fairfield Resilient Action Network fosters social well-being, environmental health, and economic opportunity through bottom-up community collaboration and partnerships. Community-led projects turning Fairfield’s Resilient Action Plan into reality.