Orton Family Foundation

Hear how Community Heart & Soul™ offers a way to involve everyone—from business owners to neighbors—in planning and development that leads to lasting results. The bottom line: knowing what a community wants upfront reduces risk for developers, increases investor confidence and makes possibilities happen in a way that benefits community members and investors.

Listen to this lively call on how Heart & Soul sparks transformation with Jared Duval, economic development director, Vermont Department of Economic Development and Orton Family Foundation trustee; Daniel Stevenson, director of economic and community development, Biddeford, Maine, and Patrick Wright, executive director, Gardiner Main Street, Gardiner, Maine.

Follow along with our collaborative notes: http://bit.ly/1I2bdVp

Achieving community-wide participation is an admirable but challenging goal. Identifying the multiple layers of community can be the difference between success or failure of a project. Orton’s Community Network Analysis (CNA) brings fresh new voices and solutions to the table and is a powerful way to understand who lives, works, and plays in your town and how best to reach them.

Alece Montez-Greigo, Orton’s director of programs, explains the tool. Community Heart & Soul project coordinator Alexis Halbert of Paonia, Colorado, and Gabrielle Ratté Smith, senior associate for strategic partnerships at Orton and of Essex, Vermont, join her to share their on-the-ground experience with CNA.

Follow along with our Google Doc: http://bit.ly/1w9PKBY

Our communities are constantly changing. Most changes are gradual and predictable—a new store opens on Main Street, newcomers come to town and priorities shift. But, sometimes change is abrupt, unexpected—a major natural disaster or an epidemic.

How can your city or town best prepare for unanticipated change? What will help your community respond to challenges not only to bounce back, but to become stronger than ever?

Michael Crowley, senior program officer, Institute for Sustainable Communities, and Christine Morris, chief resilience officer with the city of Norfolk, Virginia, join CommunityMatters for an hour-long conference talk to share ideas and lessons learned from building resilient communities.

Follow along with our notes here: http://bit.ly/1y40o2A.

Photo credit: Martijn de Valk, Flickr Creative Commons, https://flic.kr/p/9xJXrc

We all know the importance of physical health--regular exercise, eating well and good habits help us keep on track with that (most of the time). But how do we exercise our civic health? How do we improve the way we participate in our community?

Evan Weissman, executive director, Warm Cookies of the Revolution and Emily Kiehne, graduate assistant, Missouri State University, join CommunityMatters for an hour-long talk about promoting healthy civic life. They share both fun and data-driven approaches to exercising civic health and, in turn, maintaining strong communities.

Follow along with our collaborative notes: http://bit.ly/ZUqJBG

Photo credit: Warm Cookies of the Revolution

Your town is finally in the digital age with a website, online calendar, and Facebook page. Now you can sit back and relax, right? Not exactly.

An array of online tools is available that can take your digital presence to the next level, promoting collaboration between government and citizens, engaging new audiences, and effectively complementing “analog” face-to-face engagement. It’s time for your town to get online and see what’s out there!

On this CommunityMatters® conference call you'll dig deeper into digital engagement with experts Alissa Black and Pete Peterson. You’ll learn about online public engagement and which digital tools are right for your town.

Follow along with the call notes at http://bit.ly/1qAcco8.

Photo Credit: Sebastiaan ter Burg, Flickr Creative Commons, https://flic.kr/p/eqJHbr

Moki Macias and Tramunda Hodges of the Annie E. Casey Foundation join CommunityMatters® for an hour-long conference call on inclusivity. Moki and Tramunda share their experience with promoting equal treatment and opportunity in community decision-making at the Foundation's Atlanta Civic Site.

Follow along with the call notes: bit.ly/1q1clCE.

Image credit: Brian Talbot, Flickr CC License, https://flic.kr/p/mU9dq.

On this CommunityMatters® conference call, Felisa Conner of the Office of Neighborhood Vitality in Garland, Texas talks about building and sustaining vital neighborhoods. Councilman Scott LeMay of Garland, a graduate of the city's Neighborhood Management Academy and former President of the Camelot Neighborhood Association joins her. Felisa and Councilman LeMay share tools and strategies for neighborhood management - ways to foster collaboration and build capacity to develop and realize neighborhood vision and goals.

Access the call notes at: http://bit.ly/1eP9F1k

Photo credit:

Lafayette College

Flickr Creative Commons License

flickr.com/photos/lafayette-college/4990251511

Slow internet stinks. It kills business growth, hinders education, impedes health care services, and generally just makes life a little less enjoyable. But what can you do? Aren’t we all just stuck with the service we’ve got?

What if there was a solution that offered fast, affordable and reliable internet service, while benefiting your community and your economy? This, my friend, is what Community Broadband Networks have to offer.

On this CommunityMatters® conference call, Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Billy Ray of Glasgow Electric Plant Board join us to talk about Community Broadband Networks, publicly-owned providers of high-speed internet. Listen to the recording to learn about the benefits of community broadband along with tips for getting started with a network in your city or town.

Find the notes for this call at http://bit.ly/1nUflvd.

Photo credit:

Sebastiaan ter Burg

Flickr Creative Commons License

http://flickr.com/photos/ter-burg/8823162570

What’s the difference between a plan that’s put into place and one that’s put on a shelf? People. If you want something to show for your hard work, you need to build strong local leadership and grassroots support. This webinar will focus on how to grow effective local leaders who can nurture volunteers, corral resources and build the public support that can move community design or planning work from paper to practice.

Join Milan Wall from the Heartland Center for Leadership Development to learn about their research on keys to thriving communities and effective leadership. Milan will describe characteristics of effective local leaders, roles and responsibilities to guide community action, and tips for recruiting new leaders in a changing world.

This webinar is part of a capacity-building series offered jointly by CommunityMatters and the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design.

To view the visual components of this presentation, please visit https://vimeo.com/86720109.

Photo credit:

UN Women Gallery

Flickr Creative Commons License, Attribution

http://flic.kr/p/aPpc6g

You’ve got the great ideas and a plan for moving forward, but let’s face it: Your community lacks the cash it needs to make it real. This call focuses on key sources of funding (including federal funding, grants, and crowdsourcing) and resources to help make design and development projects in small towns, rural areas, and neighborhoods happen. Our speakers also cover strategies for creating successful funding pitches and positioning your project for funding applications.

Featuring: Cynthia M. Adams of GrantStation, Erin Barnes of ioby and Jen Hughes from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo credit: Flickr user emdot, Creative Commons License