Orton Family Foundation

The arts can be a creative, meaningful, and effective way to engage residents, particularly those who might not otherwise get involved. In this free 60-minute talk you’ll hear how communities come together using the arts as part of Community Heart & Soul™.

Presenters include:

Lindsay Varner, project director, Greater Carlisle Heart & Soul in Pennsylvania. Lindsay is using her background in oral history to inspire storytelling efforts in Carlisle.

Debbie Moreno, project coordinator, Galesburg on Track in Illinois. Galesburg has tapped local artists in a variety of creative ways, including a portrait project, logo contest, and expressing residents’ ideas as art.

Vasanthi Meyette is a school teacher who was an active volunteer in Heart & Soul of Essex, Vermont. The project included a community-wide arts project called Mobilize Essex. More than 70 volunteers and dozens of students from six schools teamed up to create mobiles.

Galesburg photo slideshow: http://bit.ly/2e6WOiV.

One of the long-term benefits of Community Heart & Soul™ is the partnerships that are created. Heart & Soul helps organizations and institutions connect and work together in ways that they might not have otherwise.

In this call recording you’ll hear from individuals representing organizations large and small that have benefited from connecting through Heart & Soul.

Follow along with our Google Doc: http://bit.ly/2bEGva5.

Community Heart & Soul™ is a two-year community development method that calls for broad and deep resident engagement.

It's been called a "positive disruptive force" in the towns that sign on. In this free 60-minute talk you'll hear how Heart & Soul projects got results, both short- and long-term and helped create brighter futures for small towns in Colorado, Maine, and Vermont. Speakers include, Liz Subin of Essex, Vermont; Pat Hart of Gardiner, Maine, and Saoirse Charis-Graves of Golden, Colorado.

Follow along with our Google Doc: http://bit.ly/25dVQ8g.

Storytelling is a powerful way to broadly engage a community and hear from voices that often go unheard. Hear how storytelling has brought residents together, bridged long-standing divides, and ultimately helped community foundations make positive, lasting, and meaningful impact.

This conversation is co-sponsored by Council on Foundations and Orton Family Foundation and focuses on storytelling in the Community Heart & Soul™ method of community development.

With guests Nancy Van Milligen, president and chief executive, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque in Iowa; Katherine Kreuchauf, president of the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation in Ohio, Jason Neises, Heart & Soul coordinator, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, and Monica Palmquist, a community organizer who served on her town’s Heart & Soul Team in Cortez, Colorado. Hosted by Fran Stoddard of the Orton Family Foundation.

"Our foundation has been leading effective community engagement since 2005. We believe strongly that local decision making is key to building strong, sustainable communities. With Orton's experience, support, and resources like the Community Heart & Soul Field Guide, we see an opportunity to move our work from good to great." Nancy Van Milligen, president and chief executive officer, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa.

Follow along with in our Google Doc: http://bit.ly/1T9d8yN

Young people often feel left out of the larger community conversation, yet can bring fresh eyes, optimism and enthusiasm to any initiative. And, in many cases they want to be included, but just haven’t been asked. On this call recording, you’ll hear about the benefits of youth inclusion from the perspective of students and their elders. The results might surprise you.

Featured speakers are Mark Nahorney, director of community relations, University of New England, who led an effort to get college students engaged in activities in downtown Biddeford, Maine. Andrew Cimonetti is a sophomore at the University of Vermont from Essex, Vermont. He played a key role in his town's Community Heart & Soul™ project, serving as co-chair of the Heart & Soul Team. Ali Lightfoot is production manager at public radio station KVNF in Paonia, Colorado. She directs "Pass the Mic," a youth (ages 8-12) reporting project that was instrumental in breaking down barriers and bringing new voices into the conversation about the region's future. Hosted by Fran Stoddard of Orton Family Foundation.

Follow along with our Google Doc: http://bit.ly/1PSDAHp

Social media is one important way to reach out to and engage community members and a key communications tool for any Community Heart & Soul project. Hear how social media can work for you in your town with insight and practical tips from Julie Brown, program director at the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation in Ohio and Leslie Wright, Orton communications associate, with host Fran Stoddard.

For a great primer on social media watch Julie's webinar on storytelling through social media. It's chock full of practical strategies for putting Facebook to work for you! Watch the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLJK2s0u-FQ&feature=youtu.be.

Follow along with our call note: http://bit.ly/1KKdViM

Community Heart & Soul™ had its genesis in one planning commissioner’s frustration with business-as-usual planning. Orton Family Foundation founder Lyman Orton saw flaws in a development review system that left decisions that affected the entire community in the hands of a few. Community Heart & Soul shifts the paradigm by starting with deep community engagement that results in clear priorities based on what matters most to all residents.

Learn more about how this barn-raising approach to community development can benefit your town. Alece Montez-Griego, Orton director of programs, is joined by Rick Muriby, planning manager, Golden, Colorado, and Jane Lafleur, executive director, Friends of Midcoast Maine.

Follow along with the Google Doc notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h_wgG-ebp0m-c-N_ih_9xrDtfAJn-Aw3-yCHyd8UUB4/edit

“Involve Everyone” is a core principle of the Community Heart & Soul™ method. Towns that have undertaken Heart & Soul projects have come up with creative ways to hear from community members whose voices might otherwise go unheard.

With Meagan Picard, Orton senior associate, Meaghan Carlson, past Heart & Soul project coordinator in Gardiner, Maine, and Robby Henes, Heart & Soul Team member, Heart & Soul of Cortez, Colorado. Both towns came up with creative ways to engage residents, from bar coaster surveys to a "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" photo contest. This call aired live on 8-13-15.

Learn how Orton's Community Heart & Soul™ approach incorporates personal story to illuminate a community's history, priorities, and aspirations, and how those stories can enable residents to drive local decision-making.

Orton's Director of Programs Alece Montez-Griego is joined by Elaine Brett, project co-coordinator for the Community Heart & Soul project in the North Fork Valley, which includes the towns of Paonia, Hotchkiss and Crawford, Colorado. Brett worked closely with an innovative program called "Pass the Mic" in which youth interviewed residents to learn more about local industry and report on the Valley's values. Also on the call is Holli Andrews, executive director, Framingham Downtown Renaissance and former intern with Biddeford, Maine's Heart & Soul project where she helped develop a storytelling-based tour of downtown Biddeford that invited residents to record their stories at "HeartSpots" at key locations.

Are community members in your town in the dark when it comes to planning and development issues? Does your local government struggle to recruit volunteers for boards and commissions? If so, a citizens’ academy could be the answer!

Citizen planning academies build local leadership, increase awareness, and broaden involvement in community planning.

Wayne Senville, publisher and editor, PlannersWeb.com; Leanna Lawson, chairperson, Rockingham County Citizens' Academy; and Kathleen Osher, executive director, Transit Alliance, join CommunityMatters® for an hour-long conference call from June 11. They shared ideas and tips for starting a citizens’ academy in your community.

Follow along with our Google Doc notes: http://bit.ly/1ede30F