Discovering Community Heart & Soul in Two Kindred Towns

Middlebury, VT — What do Exeter, RI and Killingly, CT, have in common? These two towns in neighboring states may be surprised to learn the answer to this question and others as they embark on in-depth “Heart and Soul” visioning as part of the ongoing Borderlands Village Innovation Pilot Project.

The Pilot Project has brought together residents, community leaders, economists, designers, planners and others to encourage citizens to lend their voices, input and local knowledge to the teams with which the towns will be working.

“Sharing results of the process between the two towns may show that they have some of the same interests, challenges and ideas. But residents will be most excited about shaping the futures of their hometowns based on local knowledge of what makes living there special—what attracted them to their town and what keeps them there,” said Susan Westa, Project Coordinator.

The first step in the process is a series of interviews with townspeople to gather their wisdom and generate a vision of the community for generations to come. Heart and Soul Visioning gives community members a chance to let their towns know what’s important to them.

All residents, businesses and other community stakeholders are invited to a focus group to discuss the following questions:

• What three words or phrases would you use to describe your community?
• What draws people to your town?
• Is there one special place or feature that captures the essence or spirit of your town? If yes, what and where is it?
• What, if lost, would fundamentally change your community forever?
• If you could change one thing about your town, what would it be and how?
• What kind of growth would you like to see in your town, and why?
• Where would you like to see it happen?

Stories, ideas, and even pictures, gathered from group interviews will be incorporated with other information gathered through an electronic survey, a series of visioning workshops and other methods to create a vision for each community. Borderlands Project partners will then help Killingly and Exeter implement plans for the future.

Killingly’s focus group meetings will be held May 10, 13 and 14 at the Town Library in Danielson and the Northeast CT Council of Government’s Office in Dayville. Exeter’s meetings will be held April 26, May 2 and 3 at the Town Grange on Route 102 in Exeter. If you are interested in participating and would like more information, please contact Susan Westa, Borderlands Project Coordinator at 860-774-9600, ext. 24 or susan.westa@uconn.edu, or visit the Borderlands website at www.borderlandsproject.org.

The Pilot is an initiative of the Borderlands Project, which is a joint effort The Nature Conservancy and numerous other partners, and supported by the Orton Family Foundation. This partnership works to create opportunities for economic and community development in the twenty rural towns along the CT-RI border while conserving and enhancing the natural amenities that make these communities great places to live. The Borderlands are home to more than 200,000 people, many businesses and hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. It also contains some of the most ecologically important lands in the Northeast, including unfragmented forest habitats and pristine watersheds.

The Orton Family Foundation, based in Middlebury, Vermont, and with an office in Denver, seeks to help small cities and towns discover and describe their heart and soul—the collective attributes that make communities unique—and build on those attributes in planning toward a vibrant, enduring future.

For more information contact:

Susan Westa, Borderlands Project Coordinator
860.774.9600  ext. 24
susan.westa@uconn.edu
www.borderlandsproject.org

John Barstow, Director of Communications
The Orton Family Foundation
802.388.8612
PO Box 111
Middlebury, VT 05753
communications@orton.org
www.orton.org