Our Story
During the summer of 2011, a diverse group of youth and adults who live or work in Essex (both within and outside the village) met for several months to prepare a joint application for an Orton H&S planning grant. Our team included community members, town and village representatives, planners, public and private sector partners, staff and elected officials. We believed the grant could help Essex have a new conversation that focused more on the identification of shared interests across the community that could:
We hoped this would lead to a few outcomes:
- Improve communication and collaboration between town and village,
- Tap into new civic energy that sparked a successful revitalization effort in the village center and
- Make sure that as Essex continues to grow and change we hold onto what is special about our community
- Engage people from all parts of our community to help gain an understanding of our history, opportunities, and challenges;
- Identify a set of shared values that will drive community decision making in the future;
- Identify actions the community could take right away to bring our values to life.
We hoped this would lead to a few outcomes:
- Coordinated planning efforts that reflect the community vision and values in land use planning and municipal work
- A culture that encourages and supports residents who want to participate in the civic life of our community
- A landscape that reflects local values
Impacts
We created a demand for and a culture of engagement around issues facing the community (modeling engagement strategies that were fun, meaningful, two way and demonstrated a connection between people’s voices and decisions being made in the community).
These strategies are being used in schools and by community groups to change the way we convene meetings and expect to be heard. Two examples: Our school districts merged with overwhelming support from all three communities as a result of the engagement efforts during the grant period. In the new district, the communication task team has been broadened to include community engagement and $10,000 was allocated in the 2019 budget for engagement.
At the municipal level, we created a shared vision across municipalities that continues to move ahead despite setbacks. The conversation of merger has changed from whether or not to how best to do it. Joint meetings of the board of the Trustees and the Selectboard are frequent and continue to focus on discussing ways to move towards shared governance. Both boards are engaging in facilitated processes to dive deeply into issues that affect the community and how it grows.
The award winning Essex Town Plan was crafted with the Heart & Soul values as the centerpiece and touchstone and continues to inform decision making and how the Town develops.
We identified a demand for a coffee shop through engagement and created momentum through research and field testing (through our pop up coffee shops in locations that allowed people to envision what was possible). Since 2014, several new coffee shops and restaurants have come to the community, the farmers market has made a resurgence, and these new businesses are thriving.
We provided an opportunity for new leaders to emerge. These informal leaders are now in formal positions at local and state level and continue to support effective civic engagement as an important value.
We created opportunities for young people to have a meaningful voice in community affairs, and this set the stage for the Voices For Education work, which has further elevated student voice. The relationships built, and the lessons learned during the Heart & Soul process have informed the work of VFE and have had a positive impact on the direction and success of that work
The district wide community arts project that we did during heart and soul provided an opportunity for art teachers to collaborate across the whole district for the first time. This led to another highly successful district wide arts event (lantern parade). We are noticing a tremendous amount of momentum for community arts activities and arts related business and lots of relationships forming that are having an impact as well.
These strategies are being used in schools and by community groups to change the way we convene meetings and expect to be heard. Two examples: Our school districts merged with overwhelming support from all three communities as a result of the engagement efforts during the grant period. In the new district, the communication task team has been broadened to include community engagement and $10,000 was allocated in the 2019 budget for engagement.
At the municipal level, we created a shared vision across municipalities that continues to move ahead despite setbacks. The conversation of merger has changed from whether or not to how best to do it. Joint meetings of the board of the Trustees and the Selectboard are frequent and continue to focus on discussing ways to move towards shared governance. Both boards are engaging in facilitated processes to dive deeply into issues that affect the community and how it grows.
The award winning Essex Town Plan was crafted with the Heart & Soul values as the centerpiece and touchstone and continues to inform decision making and how the Town develops.
We identified a demand for a coffee shop through engagement and created momentum through research and field testing (through our pop up coffee shops in locations that allowed people to envision what was possible). Since 2014, several new coffee shops and restaurants have come to the community, the farmers market has made a resurgence, and these new businesses are thriving.
We provided an opportunity for new leaders to emerge. These informal leaders are now in formal positions at local and state level and continue to support effective civic engagement as an important value.
We created opportunities for young people to have a meaningful voice in community affairs, and this set the stage for the Voices For Education work, which has further elevated student voice. The relationships built, and the lessons learned during the Heart & Soul process have informed the work of VFE and have had a positive impact on the direction and success of that work
The district wide community arts project that we did during heart and soul provided an opportunity for art teachers to collaborate across the whole district for the first time. This led to another highly successful district wide arts event (lantern parade). We are noticing a tremendous amount of momentum for community arts activities and arts related business and lots of relationships forming that are having an impact as well.
Click on the links below for community initiatives, resources and reports
Community initiatives: Resources:
Expectation of engagement
Municipal Changes
Community Changes
New gathering places/opportunities
Financial Investment in Engagement:
Town and Village have provided funding for facilitation around
And have been fiscal partners for:
Community initiatives: Resources:
Expectation of engagement
- Transportation forum
- Safety forum
- Gun ordinance engagement
- Design 5 corners
- Voices for Education
Municipal Changes
- Heart & Soul values heart of award winning town plan
- Governance merger conversations with selectboard and trustees
- School district merger
Community Changes
New gathering places/opportunities
- Nest Coffee Shop
- Sweet Alchemy
- McGuillicuddy’s
- Mad Taco
- Double E
- SteAmFest
- Main Street Studios - Art studio space and activities along Main Street
- Co-working space at Earth Logic
- Co-working/wellness space at E2
Financial Investment in Engagement:
Town and Village have provided funding for facilitation around
- Gun ordinance,
- EGG,
- TGIF
- Design 5 Corners
And have been fiscal partners for: