Perhaps the most significant aspect of COMMUNITYMATTERS07 was its affirmation of the Foundation’s thinking; we believe that traditional land use planning rarely truly incorporates the particular ways people relate to their physical surroundings—their sense of place—and tends to ignore or discount the shared values, beliefs and traditions people derive from their communities’ unique environments, economies and cultures. Additionally, efforts to include all citizens in these important discussions are often inadequate, and many citizens simply opt out due to planning’s seeming lack of relevance to their lives. The conference provided a forum to explore this thinking and hear from an array of experienced people in the fields of planning, visioning, engagement and the arts. By the close of the conference, 103 attendees had signed a “Declaration of Community Heart & Soul Beliefs” that helps lay the cornerstone of a values-based approach to land use planning.

With a better focused mission and strategic plan, and based on research now embodied in a far-reaching but never complete document entitled Planning for Community Heart & Soul, the Foundation looks forward to helping citizens and leaders of small cities and towns identify and advance their community’s heart and soul—those assets they hold dear and that connect them to one another and to their community as a whole. How will we do this? Well, this is when I get excited about the coming year.

As we eagerly roll up our sleeves, I anticipate additional work by the Foundation to take this collective Declaration of Community Heart & Soul Beliefs and with your help start to transform its concepts into actions, tools, case studies, manuals, and a national movement. We have taken our first step by issuing a Request for Proposals in which we seek to work with two communities in our Northeast and Rocky Mountain regions over the next 2-3 years. This new work will join our current projects in the Borderlands region of Connecticut and Rhode Island and our work on the Maine Model Town Project in Standish, Maine with GrowSmart Maine.  We are increasing our capacity by hiring several senior associates this spring and will, over the next six months, constantly improve our website to provide more information about and examples of community heart and soul planning. Please visit the website regularly for the latest information.

While we have decided to hold our next COMMUNITYMATTERS conference in 2009 (taking this year off to pursue what we learned in the 2007 conference), we will in the meantime hold two to four small convenings in our two regions. We’ll keep you up to date on these convenings as they develop; watch for emails and the next issue of Scenarios. This Winter 2008 issue of Scenarios continues our efforts to bring you commentaries, cases studies, tools, interviews, book reviews and other information that should prove helpful in your challenging and vitally important work of improving the future growth of your towns and villages, thereby strengthening the heart and soul of community.

All of us at the Foundation thank you for the good work that you do and hope you’ll keep in touch—we’d love to hear about and learn from your successes and struggles. All the best in this new year,

 

William Roper
President & CEO