In late March Community Heart & Soul (CH&S) staff Leanne Tingay and coach Darrin Wasniewski traveled to Laramie, WY to facilitate a CH&S phase 2 workshop with volunteers and staff of the United Way of Albany County’s Community Impact Cooperative (CIC). The group gathered over the course of 2 days to delve into the whys and how of Phase 2: Connect.
In this phase of the Community Heart & Soul approach, “Stories are gathered from residents, leading to the development of Heart & Soul Statements that identify what matters most and reflect what they love about their towns,” according to the Community Heart & Soul website. Participants learned the difference between thick data and thin data, and why both are needed for CH&S, as well as how to collect both. The second day focused on extracting the data from the stories gathered and how to group them to begin to understand the community’s priorities.
A connection with Laramie Main Street Alliance made earlier in the year proved invaluable as the CIC team set out to take advantage of the summer festival and event season for their story gathering. The Main Street group had equipment for recording interviews and worked with the volunteers to train them on using it. Then they laid out a plan for where they would show up to collect stories.
Trey Sherwood, director of Laramie Main Street Alliance recounts, “The community has been so gracious to share their stories with us. We've made new friends and reconnected with long time residents by "popping up" at community events. As an extrovert, I'm loving a reason to engage strangers! I'm realizing just how many people love "Laradise" as much as I do!”
Mary Orr, co-chair of the CIC says this about the work to date, “even though we are still relatively new to this process, it's been very exciting to see the response from the community. People LOVE Laramie and are invested in this community. So far, the most interesting aspect has been hearing about Laramie through different perspectives. Some people focus on outdoor recreation, some focus on the elderly population or those in poverty, some focus on child care, it's just great to see all the people who make up this community and what is most important to them.’
The CIC Heart & Soul team will continue to gather their thick and thin data while also moving into the Story Listening work with volunteers in the coming months. The CH&S coaches will return to Laramie in October to train the group in developing Heart & Soul Statements, or Value Statements, from the data collected. The public will be given an opportunity to validate these statements before they set the framework for developing an action plan.
You can learn more about the work of the Community Impact Cooperative by visiting, https://unitedwayalbanycounty.org/cic/ or the Laramie Main Street Alliance, https://laramiemainstreet.org/.
If you are interested in exploring how Community Heart & Soul may benefit your community connect with either Nora or Darrin with The Grow Collaborative.
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