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Heart & Soul FAQ’s
What is Heart and Soul of Essex?
Heart and Soul of Essex is a community conversation for envisioning the future.
What are we doing?
- ENGAGING the community in dialogue about the future.
- Creating a VISION based on what people are saying.
- ACTIVATING lots of people from our community to take ACTION to move towards our vision.
What do we believe?
- Everyone deserves a say.
- Planning for the future should be guided by what’s most important to the community.
- Our community will be more successful if people from the town and village have a chance to talk together about the future and discover our shared interests.
Why does it matter?
Essex is growing and changing. We want to hold onto what is special about our community and we want the changes that do happen to reflect what matters to the people who live and work here.
Is this about merger?
No. Past merger conversations have been about changing our governance structure. Heart & Soul is about discovering areas where we have similar interests and identifying ways to work together to accomplish our shared vision.
This is a different way to approach government, to explore new ways to communicate about what matters to us and to make sure our planning decisions are guided by our shared values.
Hi, Thank you for being a part of our inservice and getting the word out about your project. I just wanted to touch base with you about an activity that the second grade team, our school librarian and I have come up with for this years K-12 showcase. We will be taking the book Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet and create our own version of the Macy Day Parade using the community theme with each student creating a paper mache balloon representing our student diversity. We plan to have them on display at the K-12 showcase as well as our second grade sharing evening. Judy Tiplady, art educator, Hiawatha School.
Thanks for sharing, Judy. Sounds great! We would love to come photograph and/or video your process and be part of the conversation around community. Just let us know!
Your organization sounds great! Have you explored starting a community garden? Making the Essex community healthier with extending bike and walking paths to lace our communities together, would also be wonderful. These endeavors would allow for increased positive interaction between our residents of all ages.
It would be great if our community would be known a a green community versus two communities that seem to not get along. Moving here from out of state I am still amazed at the fracture between the 2 communities. Together, Essex and Essex Center could really do some wonderful things.
Thank you for all of the positive energy your organization has given to our community!
Sue
P.S. A charging station, for electric cars, placed over by the railroad depot would be a great perk for the community!
Hi Sue – thanks for your note. Great ideas! Your thoughts are well aligned with what we heard during the Neighborhood Conversations. Shortly, we will be announcing the results of those conversations and provide an opportunity for community members to weigh in on the shared values we uncovered, and offer action ideas through a brief survey. We’ll be sharing everyone’s ideas with our project partners and community leaders and will be providing an opportunity for the whole community to review these and set priorities for the future. Please check back soon for details.