April 2023 Newsletter: How We Do the Work is as Important as What We Do
At The Harwood Institute, we believe that how we do the work is as important as what we do. We’re committed to providing you the frameworks and resources you need not just to get started, but to deepen your understanding of how we do this work and how to stay on the path and sustain your work—beginning with some of the tools you’ll find in this newsletter. These tools are built on the lessons we’ve learned in nearly 35 years of research, innovation, and on-the-ground work with communities. We are here to support you as you Turn Outward and catalyze lasting change in your community.
NEW WAYS TO GROUND YOURSELF IN OUR WORK
We’re excited to share some new ways for you to ground yourself in our work!
First, we’ve added some brand new content to our website. The new content includes a detailed look at the ideas and roadmaps at the core of our work that will help get you started and keep you going. The expanded content on our Key Reorienting Ideas will deepen your understanding of how we do this work, ground you in our approach and inform how you show up. The Key Roadmaps include some of the newest key additions to the Harwood approach that will help you stay on your path and sustain your work.
To help you accelerate and deepen your work even further, we are also launching a quarterly webinar series, “The New Basics with Rich Harwood” to provide you with real, practical ways to put these concepts and resources into action. Whether you’re new to our work or you have been using our approach for years, this webinar series will expose you to stuff you haven’t seen before and open your eyes to new ways of doing things.
We invite you to join us for the first in this webinar series, covering the Key Mantras, on Tuesday, May 9 at 12 pm Eastern. The mantras are our work boiled down to its most essential components. People tell us the mantras help them move faster and stronger and use our work more effectively. Beyond learning how to incorporate them into your own work and life, on this webinar Rich will also help you understand how to use the mantras to build allies in your own organization and in the community, a critical step in helping you catalyze and spread change in your community.
PILOTING THE PERSONAL GROWTH CHECK-IN TOOL
Recently, the Harwood Institute created a new tool, the Personal Growth Check-In, for individuals to name how they're personally growing by adopting and adapting the Harwood approach in their work and lives. Public innovators have already used this tool in four communities: Reading, PA, Sarasota, FL, Norfolk, VA and Clarksville, TN. Their responses have helped us understand the impact our work is having in communities and on people’s lives.
All had slight differences reflective of what’s happening in their communities, but there were emergent themes across the results. Here’s what we learned:
In Sarasota, participants are learning to listen to what really matters to people. They’re listening before taking action and gaining a better understanding of the community as a whole.
In Reading, participants are challenging their assumptions about who to work with and how. They are building broader networks and strengthening their existing relationships to foster better collaborations.
Norfolk participants are identifying new and improved ways to share information with the community. They’re also working on collaborating with and listening to their community more.
Participants in Clarksville are also expanding their capacity to collaborate with others in the community. They’re engaging more with people they haven’t worked with and crafting new partnerships.
We’re excited about what we’re learning from the Personal Growth Check-in forms. We look forward to rolling it out across our network – keep an eye out!
AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR COMPANY’S RENEWED INVESTMENT IN OHIO AND BEYOND
Last year, The Harwood Institute was approached by the American Honda Motor Company (and now a member of our CIRCLE of Catalytic Funders) to help them learn how to strengthen their relationships and make more strategic investments in the communities that are home to their operations. The result was the launch of two new initiatives in Ohio—one in Logan County, and one in Union County. Both counties are home to Honda manufacturing facilities; in fact, Honda's manufacturing in America began in Marysville in Union County.
The initiatives will serve as a springboard for Honda’s future actions in the region. The initiatives are designed to engage with the communities around the key issues that matter to people in both counties and to better understand how to strengthen the underlying conditions and civic culture in order to catalyze change.
We are currently using the Public Capital Factors framework to inform in-depth interviews with local leaders and community conversations with residents across each of the two counties. These engagements will culminate in two upcoming reports highlighting community voices and challenges and outlining ways the communities can accelerate and deepen action on what matters to people. The reports, and the ensuing actions Honda takes in Logan County and Union County will inform spreading this deeply rooted approach in the other communities where they work.
We look forward to sharing more updates as we work to renew Honda’s impact in these communities and help set Union County and Logan County on a more fair, hopeful, equitable, and inclusive path forward.
HARWOOD TEAM UPDATE
We are excited to welcome a new member to the Harwood team: Gabby Levet, our Community Partnerships Manager. Gabby is a social impact professional with experience building relationships and designing/implementing programs across sectors, communities and geographies. In her new role, Gabby is excited to develop strong partnerships in an effort to support community-based change and healing across the country. Learn more about Gabby.
We’d also like to extend our sincerest thanks to Monique Mosley, our outgoing Director of Community Initiatives. Monique has had an immeasurable impact in her time with The Harwood Institute and will be missed by both her colleagues and the many people she touched in our partner communities. While Monique is leaving her full-time role, we are excited that she will be staying in the Harwood family, serving as a consultant on the Jackson, MS community initiative.
The Latest from Rich
Answering from Expansiveness
Rich Harwood’s latest article for the Christian Citizen on stepping forward out of the narrow place and into the public square.
Revisiting “I Tried to Let Them Know They Were Safe”
In the wake of yet another mass shooting that claimed the lives of children, Rich revisited a piece he wrote following the Uvalde shooting about what it means–for us, for our communities–to feel safe.
How to Take Back the Public Square
We are at a critical moment in our country: our public square is being hijacked by the loudest, noisiest, and most divisive voices and groups. In this Sunday Letter, Rich outlines the intentional actions we must take to counter these negative forces taking over our public square.