On behalf of
Incourage staff and board, I am excited to share information about an
initiative we launched this week, with support from Nathan Cummings Foundation,
which we hope will make a powerful contribution to the future of our community:
Incourage is convening a diverse circle of residents from our region to form
the Sustainable Communities Working Group. This group will engage
residents across our community to co-create a “blueprint” for the sustainable
community that our region can become.
Incourage is
committed to ensuring that this endeavor is not merely a thought exercise that
results in nothing more than words on paper. We will turn the blueprint into
real-world action: Incourage is ready to be bold in offering new funding
possibilities specifically designed to resource this blueprint created by our
community – blending grant, investment
and other forms of capital and support, to bring this blueprint to life.
The blueprint will also inform the
priorities and direction for the newly announced Partnership for Sustainable
Communities of Incourage and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a center
for thought-leadership and action on sustainable communities that is the first
of its kind in the state.
Realizing the
power of our potential is at the heart of what inspires Incourage to keep
pushing the envelope of what is possible in our region, and to continue to
explore what our role should be as a community foundation operating by and for
the people.
We are honored
to work with 22 thoughtful,
dedicated community members who have
accepted the invitation to come together toward the shared goal of envisioning
a sustainable future for our region. We also look forward to the input
and insight that the Working Group members will gather from the intentional
conversations they will host with colleagues, neighbors, classmates, clients,
and others. Together, we envision a blueprint that represents the ideas,
hopes, and priorities of many people across our community.
To help design
a process of cutting-edge co-creation, Incourage is collaborating with Joanna
Cea and Jess Rimington, whose work and research as Visiting Scholars at
Stanford University’s Global Projects Center is represented in the Stanford
Social Innovation Review article, Creating Breakout Innovation, and focuses on collaborative processes
for community transformation. Together - with Incourage - they will facilitate
a process that places residents in the driver's seat to identify a set of
practices to realize our community’s vision of a sustainable future.
When I think
about us expanding our horizon and looking toward our community’s future, I
think of the reaction we enjoy when taking people to the roof of the Tribune for the first time. The
rooftop view of the riverfront and downtown invokes awe-inspired comments and
vision; seeding conversations about possibility. It is a similar feeling of
potential we hope the “blueprint” will spark in setting our collective sights
high for what is possible with the future of our community.
Our staff and
board are very excited for the co-creative process ahead. We are
committed to learning from and acting on the reflections and recommendations
that emerge – making the blueprint as
impactful as it can be.
If you are
interested in joining the conversations about this blueprint and sharing your own
ideas, please reach out. You can email me at kryan@incouragecf.org, or Heather
McKellips at hmckellips@incouragecf.org, or call us at 715.423.3863.
Thanks for
reading and for your interest in our shared, sustainable future!
Kelly
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