Chittenden County is Growing. What will this mean for Essex?
Change is coming. Through the Heart & Soul of Essex our growth can be shaped by what’s most important to us. We’ll be out and about this summer and look forward to getting to know many of you. And…stay tuned for details about our Launch Party in September followed by plenty of ways to join the conversation over the next year and a half.
Have fun, paint and eat ice-cream, this Friday!
Join us Friday at the Brownell Library at 3:00 to paint banners and signs for our Memorial Day walking unit. Oh…and get a free ice-cream cone for your work, thanks to our friends at Maplehurst Florist.
Plans Underway for H & S Memorial Day Float
Great meeting last night to brainstorm ideas for the Memorial Day Float. Now we need to build it. Want to help? Check back soon for meeting times and dates.
Last Sunday’s Meeting
Sorry for the delay in posting this, but better late than never! We had a great meeting at the Essex Free Library last Sunday, the 15th of April. A huge thanks to everyone who gave up a beautiful Sunday afternoon to attend!
We had a great meeting. Some of the topics discussed were:
- To build our understanding of Heart & Soul
- To identify values to guide the 2 year process
- To find the various interests and skill of the CAT members
Memorial Day Parade Float
We are planning on making a float for the Memorial Day Parade! However, we can’t do this by ourselves. We need your help! We need people to help make the float, people to help on the parade day, and people to provide a Truck and Trailer for the float to be on. A link to the survey can be found here
Heart & Soul Needs YOU!
As we move forward, members of the Heart and Soul of Essex team will need lots of help from community volunteers. Our immediate need is to find several people to round out our core planning group. Since our work involves reaching out to all kinds of people in our community, we need a team that is diverse and representative of a variety of perspectives. We are looking for new members who represent varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds and/or have a connection to one or more of the following: arts; business; sports; local clubs; seniors; or education. If you are interested, please call Brad Luck at 878-1375 or e-mail heartandsoulofessex@gmail.com by Friday, April 20. Let us know why you are interested and what experiences and qualities you could add to the team.
Check here for a job description: Community Advisory Team Job Description
Getting Organized
Last week the Community Advisory Team (CAT) met to take stock of all that has happened since we first met to apply for the Orton Family Foundation grant. There is so much energy and excitement about moving forward. Brad Luck and Andrew Cimonetti were elected to co-chair the CAT (thanks, Brad and Andrew, for saying “Yes”), and several committees were established to carry out our work. The CAT is looking for a few new folks to round out the team (stay tuned for more details) and we agreed that a Heart & Soul float in the Essex Memorial Day Parade is definitely in order. We will keep in touch as our planning continues.
Heart & Soul Sisters
This week’s Essex Reporter featured an article about co-coordinators Sue & Liz. We are meeting with the Community Assistance Team tonight to reflect on our work together during the grant seeking phase, to discuss roles and responsibilities of the newly forming Heart & Soul board, and to prepare ourselves for the work ahead. We will keep you posted as we continue to move forward.
http://www.essexreporter.com/?page_id=257
Chicago Training
Gabrielle, Sue, Liz and Katherine at Millenium park
Hi everyone –we are excited to begin our work with Heart & Soul of Essex. We recently attended a conference in Chicago to learn more about the Orton Family Foundation’s Heart & Soul approach to community planning. Their approach is a fun, creative way to engage the community and prepare for our future. We can’t wait to help our community learn more about its history, share experiences living here, and identify collective hopes for the future. Right now, our team is hard at work setting up the non-profit that will serve as the home for this initiative. As we move forward with our planning, we’ll keep in touch. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have ideas or questions. We look forward to hearing from you. Best, Liz & Sue
Project Coordinators Announced!
The Heart and Soul of Essex, Inc. is proud to announce the hiring of co-project coordinators Susan McCormack and Elizabeth Subin. The pair was selected this month as the first step in the grant process for the newly formed non-profit that was awarded a two-year, $100,000 grant from the Orton Family Foundation in December. The project proposes gathering citizen input in order to form a values-and-vision statement for the future of the community of Essex. Those values will then be woven into municipal government work and land use planning efforts. The joint application between the Village and the Town is an effort to capture the voices of all residents from the community.
McCormack and Subin were recommended by a seven member hiring team to the full 14-member Community Advisory Team and received overwhelming approval. “Sue and Liz bring a wealth of skills and expertise to this process,” explained Gabrielle Ratté Smith, resident and Prevention and Wellness Coordinator for Chittenden Central Supervisory Union. “Both have a passion for public engagement and understand the importance of engaging all parts of our community in this process, of reaching out to involve as many people as we can.”
