DeSoto County, FL
DeSoto County is home to resilient people. Neighbors step up to take care of each other, especially in times of crisis. People love the area’s unique, rural character. Yet many people struggle just trying to survive. And the community as a whole struggles to come together. Amid pressing challenges, the community can feel stuck.
How does a community that feels stuck gain a sense of possibility that progress is possible? How can people move from focusing on individual survival to coming together to create more hope? How does a community with limited resources unleash its full potential?
Today, DeSoto County faces a fundamental choice: Will it remain stifled and separated, or will it come together and tap its shared capacity to build a brighter future?
In July 2024, The Harwood Institute, in partnership with The Patterson Foundation, released the report, DeSoto County Coming Together: Unleashing the Community’s Potential, to help the community better understand how people across the county see and experience life here and how the community can strengthen its civic culture.
In early 2025, the action phase will begin in DeSoto County with a Getting Started Lab. Three teams will form to work on issues that matter to people and begin to unleash a chain reaction. The initiative will continue with an Unleashing Impact Lab later in 2025, followed by ongoing coaching and workspaces through 2026.
Stay up to date with the DeSoto County initiative by subscribing to The Patterson Foundation’s DeSoto Digest and Youtube.
