Orton Family Foundation

Given the chance to spend $1 million in your community, what would you do? On this CommunityMatters conference call recording, we’ll learn about Participatory Budgeting (or “PB” for short), a public process where community members decide how portions of their city or town’s budget should be spent. Featuring Josh Lerner, Executive Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project and Marti Brown, Councilwoman at the City of Vallejo, California. Recorded on February 14, 2013. Notes available online at bit.ly/Vc4KmV. Photo credit: The Participatory Budgeting Project

This call provides a brief introduction to CIRD and the 2013 Request for Proposals from program partners. Featuring Cynthia Nikitin, Vice President of Project for Public Spaces and Rebecca Sanborn Stone from the Orton Family Foundation. Recorded on January 23, 2013. Notes available online at bit.ly/136KqmF.

Would you loan your favorite bookstore money to keep it from closing? Or pay $1000 for months of café fare…before the café ever opened for business? Would you spend your Saturday painting walls so that a restaurant in your neighborhood could expand its seating? Cash is tight and small business ownership is risky. But Community Supported Enterprises offer one way for communities to offer help and creative financing to get small businesses off the ground or keep them open. Featuring Paul Bruhn, Executive Director of The Preservation Trust of Vermont and Stacey Adamson, Co-founder of the Circle C Market and Teacher at Cody-Kilgore Unified Schools. Recorded on January 17, 2013. Notes available online at bit.ly/VyUvVg.

Youth and elders, young families and baby boomers. Red-staters and blue-staters, tea-partyers and progressives. The 1% and the 99%. Brown, black, yellow, white, and everything in between. Engaging the increasingly diverse people in shaping the future of our communities is one of the greatest challenges we face these days. And meaningfully engaging them is even harder. On this recording you'll learn how to identify and reach the full diversity of people in your community and make sure that participation is civil, meaningful, and valued. Featuring Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse and Founder of AmericaSpeaks and Mónica Palmquist Velázquez, Community Advisory Team Member, Cortez, CO Heart & Soul project. Recorded on December 13, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/PTAnKM. Photo credit: 2K Bloggers Project

You might not know it to look at them, but streets can do a whole lot more than shuttle cars. The Open Streets Project aims to make streets less about driving and more about "walking, bicycling, dancing, playing and socializing." Fun, right? But opening up streets to other uses also has serious benefits for health, the environment, community, and the economy. Join us to hear how communities across the country are democratizing and diversifying their streets, from the biggest cities to the smallest towns. Featuring Mike Lydon, Principal at the Street Plans Collaborative and the Open Streets Project and Rory Beil, Co-Director of Fargo StreetsAlive! and Cass Clay Healthy People Initiative Director at the Dakota Medical Foundation. Recorded on November 8, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/O7WGiw. Photo Credit: Minneapolis Open Streets, Bethany Heemyer

It's the economy, stupid - we got that. But it's tougher than you'd think for towns to make the right economic choices. When it comes to planning, development and land use, communities make a lot of decisions that are designed to fuel prosperity, but in reality only cost us in money and quality of life. The tremendous 20th Century experiment of rapid growth and suburbanization may have brought some short term booms, but the long-term bust could bankrupt our towns, our landscapes, and our sense of community. Join leading author and economic thinker Chuck Marohn for a candid conversation based on his new book, Thoughts on Building Strong Towns. Recorded October 17, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/R0yP1w.

Your "first place" is home, where you kick back and relax. Your "second place" is work, where you probably spend most of your time. But where's your "third place?" If you're lucky, your town has plenty of third places to choose from - the corner coffee shop where you can nurse a latte all day, a neighborhood bar where everybody knows your name, a library, a church, or a park. On this recording you'll hear why third places are crucial to strengthening your town's economy, community, and culture - and how you can help to build them. Featuring Karen True, Business and Community Development at Alliance for Pioneer Square and Mike Knutson, President of MAK(e) Strategies. Call recorded on September 13, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/PIMNoh.

If you're serious about engagement, you stopped expecting people to just come to your meetings a long time ago. And if you're really serious about engagement, you know that even social media and block parties can't help you reach all the people in your community. The next frontiers in innovative public engagement include a whole range of options, from games to placemaking to diversity training - and critical combinations of strategies old and new. Listen in to find out how to take engagement to the next level in your town. Featuring Larry Schooler, Community Engagement Consultant for the City of Austin and US President-Elect of the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) and Eric Gordon, Associate Professor of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College and Director of the Engagement Game Lab. Call recorded on August 9, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/NU9wOR.

Every community has a physical infrastructure - the streets and roads and sewer lines that connect buildings and allow cities to buzz and grow. But every place also has a civic infrastructure: the social connections, decision-making processes, and formal and informal networks that allow residents to solve problems, work together, and build a thriving community. Join us on this recording to explore this critical topic in community building; we'll discuss building blocks of civic infrastructure and find out what it means to you and your communities and the newly-launched CommunityMatters Partnership. Featuring Matt Leighninger, Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and CommunityMatters Partner Organizations. Recorded on June 28, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/K2aK6t.

Bake sales might get you a chocolate fix, but these days they won't get you far enough in fundraising. If you need cash to fund local community and environmental projects, it's all about Kickstarter and Twitter, crowdsourcing and websourcing donations and support. Whether you're looking to start a community garden, clean up a river, or launch a youth engagement initiative, it pays to know how to use the web to seek out support. Join us for a webinar on integrating online, grassroots fundraising and peer-to-peer campaigns into your fundraising strategy, geared toward nonprofit development directors, nonprofit founders who have to act like development directors, and their funders who are interested in learning more about online fundraising. You'll learn the tricks of the trade from Brandon Whitney, Co-Founder and COO of ioby - a platform that has helped community organizers raise more than $262,000 and succesfully fund 125 local environmental projects. Recorded on May 24, 2012.

The world is greening up quickly with our early spring, but what's your community doing to green up the world? Everyone from major environmental NGOs to local school and scout groups are recognizing the increasing potential to address major environmental issues at the local level - and the potential for that very act to build community. On this recording, you'll find out how your community can be part of the solution. Featuring Brandon Whitney, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of ioby (in our back yards) and Wendy Hawthorne, Executive Director of Groundwork Denver. Recorded on May 10, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/xHhtXx.

Ideas for using the arts and other creative approaches to solve community problems. Practical challenges group members are facing, from dealing with absentee landowners to fundraising for arts projects, engaging youth and volunteers to building strong partnerships. Image credit: Flickr user Todd Mecklem

Your community rocks. You've been doing great work, engaging residents and building a vibrant, happening place. But what are you doing to ensure that all of your hard work doesn't go to waste? This call tackles the tough questions of how to track progress, build capacity and leadership, and weave long-term change into the fabric of your community. Featuring Steven Ames, Principal of Steven Ames Planning and NXT Consulting Group and Lee Stuart, Program Officer at Duluth Local Initiatives Support Corporation. Call recorded on April 12, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/xeUsQV.

What kinds of DIY projects work in certain situations; how to measure success, plan a project, remake a highway, and engage residents - all without getting sued. Case studies from Shelburne, VT and Columbus, OH. Call recorded on February 16, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/Asa5j8. Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons / user jorgevr

How and why and when to start a storytelling project. Listen in for a far-reaching conversation about everything from high-tech tools to community networking. Recorded on February 9, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/xk6Luw.

When was the last time your town's police department sat down to write poetry? Or your city tackled a budget crisis through participatory theater? Unlikely strategies for community change, perhaps, but towns and cities are taking on nearly every imaginable issue with the help of community-based arts. On this recording you'll find out how music, theater, photography, dance and more can help to engage citizens and start conversations, opening the door to change. Featuring Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Co-Director of Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts and Marty Pottenger, Artist, Founder and Executive Director of Terra Motto Inc. and Art At Work. Call recorded on March 15, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/A0xoUv.

Who says you need a budget and a staff to turn your community around? The Do-It-Yourself era is upon us, from remodeling bathrooms to canning veggies, and the DIY spirit doesn't have stop at community. This call focuses on how to use techniques of "tactical urbanism" - small, lightweight, and often fun or surprising actions - to accomplish big things in your town. We'll hear about a range of ideas, from chair bombing and Park(ing) Day, to the Project for Public Spaces's "Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper" approach, all of which can help you build community and liven up public spaces without breaking your back or the bank. Featuring Mike Lydon, Principal of the Street Plans Collaborative and Co-Author of Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change and Phil Myrick, Senior Vice President at the Project for Public Spaces. Call recorded on February 9, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/wTYyg6.

We all tell stories about ourselves, our histories, and our places. But how often do those stories play a role in deciding your community's future? This call recording focuses on how communities across the country can use stories to identify residents' values, strengthen relationships, and shape community planning decisions. Featuring Barbara Ganley, Director of Community Expressions, LLC and Betsy Rosenbluth, Director of Projects at the Orton Family Foundation. Call recorded on January 26, 2012. Notes available online at bit.ly/rHpY5F.

Many communities struggle with how to help their elders age in place. But the ones that do the best for older generations are often the ones that are planning for youth as well, and all the ages in between. There are a whole host of benefits to building communities for all ages, including better support for young families, increased diversity, and more walkable and livable communities overall. Join us and find out how to start. Featuring Phil Stafford, Director of the Center for Aging and Community at Indiana University and author of Elderburbia: Aging with a Sense of Place in America and Elissa Thomann Mitchell, Director of Network and Outreach, Generations of Hope Development Corporation. Call recorded on December 8, 2011. Notes available online at bit.ly/rHpY5F.

You may not know it, but your network can do a lot of things. The people you interact with - and the people they interact with - can make you happy (or sad), they can make you fat (or thin), they can lead you, empower you, engage you, connect you, follow you, and change you. And that's true for everyone in your community. So if you're hard at work improving your community, take a time out to learn about the power of networks and how to harness them to help your cause. Featuring Keith Hampton, Assistant Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania and Founder of i-neighbors.org and Dana Jackson, Executive Director of Louisville's Network Center for Community Change. Call recorded on November 10, 2011. Notes available online at bit.ly/noD4aD.