October 2023 Newsletter: Creating a Personal Covenant, Finding Authentic Hope
All of the Institute’s work is rooted in Civic Faith. This is a practical philosophy that holds that placing people, community, and shared responsibility at the center of our shared lives will create a more just, inclusive, and hopeful society. At its core sits a civic covenant. We are in relationship with one another—that is the only way a shared society works. Nothing substitutes for the relational nature of community and society.
The Harwood Summit: a Space to Recenter, Reground, and Rejuvenate
“The Summit is about hearts and minds. You have to bring your whole self and show up for it. This is the kind of event where I don’t take phone calls. I’m not on my email. I’m just here having this very human experience. I come back because ultimately that’s what gives me energy and allows me to be more effective when I go back home.” - Jen Algire, President & CEO of The Greater Clark Foundation
Earlier this month, nearly 60 community leaders from across the United States gathered in Richmond, VA for our annual Harwood Summit. At this year’s Summit, we delved into intimate discussions to help us better understand the deep challenges before us and how we can move forward. Our physical space for the gathering—the Virginia Museum of History & Culture—provided a reminder that we must face the stains of our past and confront their implications for our present. Only then can we explore how to build a brighter future.
Each year, the Summit is centered on a word that we believe must be reclaimed as part of creating a new public lexicon. This year’s word was grief. The Summit offered leaders a safe space for in-depth, serious, provocative discussions on how we address and process grief in public life. We chose this year’s word because so many leaders we work with are experiencing numerous forms of unacknowledged grief in public life. When we fail to acknowledge and process our grief, we become stuck, even aggrieved. It becomes impossible for us to go together. In order to step forward and lead, we must come to terms with grief and the way it intersects with our public lives.
Across the Summit’s three days, attendees experienced small group discussions, common sessions, and personal reflections over shared meals. The experience culminated with discussion around a quote from Arthur Ashe, a Richmond native and world-renowned tennis player, civil rights activist, and humanitarian, designed to help participants reconnect with their personal “why” for doing community work. Ashe said, “I know I could never forgive myself if I elected to live without humane purpose, without trying to help the poor and unfortunate, without recognizing that perhaps the purest joy in life comes with trying to help others.”
After reflecting on Ashe’s words, leaders created a personal covenant to guide their efforts as they returned home. Wherever you are in your work, whether you joined us for this year’s Summit or not, you can engage in creating your own covenant. Download this resource here. You don’t have to share it publicly. But keep it close and use it to recenter, reground, and rejuvenate yourself when you start to feel worn down and ready to give up. As you create your covenant, remember that you are not alone in your challenges. You need not move mountains. Start small and get in motion. Your community needs your contribution because what you have to offer is enough. Just get started.
We are grateful for everyone who joined us in Richmond for this year’s Summit. We look forward to gathering again in 2024 and wrestling together with how we continue to move forward as individuals, as communities, and as a country.
News From The Studio on Community
The Harwood Studio on Community was established in 2017 to create the time and space within the Institute necessary to explore new areas, innovate around complex civic challenges, and be a space where individuals can spend time at the Institute developing their own ideas and skills.
The following reflections come from Natalie Rogers, a community development professional who joined the Institute as a Studio Associate for spring/summer 2023.
Finding Hope in Community
The world around us can be so overwhelming. Every day it seems there is something devastating going on. Another problem that seems too big to solve. It’s hard to hope when the problems feel so big. Where do we go when we feel hopeless? How do we regain a sense of agency over these huge societal problems that feel so out of our control? After my time at the Harwood Studio, I think that place is our community.
The special thing about the Harwood Institute is that they don’t claim to know all the answers. The Harwood approach is not about coming into a community and telling them that we know best. Instead, we trust that communities know what they want for themselves. What we offer is a framework to help them work together to get there.
Unleashing Impact: Alamance County, NC’s Lab
There is so much good about Alamance County, NC. At the same time, it is one of the most divided communities we have worked with in our 35 years. The area has a deep history of fault lines based on long-time vs. newer residents, where you live in the county, views on law enforcement, and issues of race and racism. Mistrust and fear is rampant. The community lacks a sense of shared purpose. In short, it is a community in need of confronting a fundamental choice: Be overrun by divisions or find new ways to build bridges and forge its own future. They chose the latter. Starting in 2021, Impact Alamance partnered with The Harwood Institute to create a new pathway forward for the community. The initial phase of work resulted in the report, Alamance Choosing Hope.
The report catalyzed people and groups in the community to step forward in new ways to unleash a chain reaction that will strengthen the area’s civic culture. In early 2023, the action phase began in Alamance County. Five teams—Youth Wellness, Arts, Faith, Bridge, and Narrative—are spearheading change efforts aligned with what matters to people.
Last week, approximately 50 community leaders in Alamance continued their learning by participating in a two-day Unleashing Impact Public Innovators Lab. The Lab is a deeply engaging space for Public Innovators to develop and strengthen relationships with other community-driven agents of hope and learn how to catalyze long-term change. Individually, each Public Innovator is making a difference through the work they do in Alamance. Collectively, they will unleash the incredible capabilities of the whole community.
Our work in communities across the country like Alamance County is one part of our strategy to demonstrate that Americans have the public will and ability to address society’s fault lines by coming together to get things done. These communities, including Reading, PA; Jackson, MS; Clarksville, TN; Lexington, KY; and Union and Logan Counties in Ohio each have unique demographics, histories, and challenges. Individually, they represent the different fault lines plaguing society today. As a whole, they demonstrate our innate capacities to change how we work together and create a new trajectory of hope by applying the Harwood approach.
Upcoming Events
The New Basics Part 3: Turning Outward Scorecard | November 2, 2023 | 1pm EST
The Turning Outward Scorecard is designed to help you assess where you are in applying the practice. This webinar will give you a detailed look at the Turning Outward Scorecard and its components and offer examples of how you can incorporate it into your work and life. Register for this free webinar!
The New Basics Part 4: Key Elements to Stay Grounded | January 9, 2024 | 1pm EST
Staying grounded in the mindset and practice of Turning Outward provides the launch pad for effective and sustained change. This webinar will detail the key elements to stay grounded, remind you of why they matter, and offer key tools to use. Register for this free webinar!
The LAtest From Rich
We Must Deal with Our Public Grief
Everywhere, people seem to be grieving what we are losing—or in many cases, have already lost—in society. And these losses are about much more than COVID. What concerns me most in this moment is that, when it comes to public life, we do not talk about grief and sorrow. We do not know how to meaningfully process these emotions in the public square.
The Harwood Institute in the News
Harwood kicks off initiative to ‘get beyond division’ via Owensboro, KY’s Messenger-Inquirer
Harwood gives peek at community feedback on issues in Owensboro, report coming next spring via Owensboro, KY’s Owensboro Times
H.L. Neblett Community Center hosts forum to discuss Owensboro’s future via Evansville, IN’s 14 News
Social media not the be all end all via Listowel, ON’s Midwestern Newspapers