July 2023 Newsletter: Staying in Motion, Celebrating Insights
Often the best way to create momentum is to get in motion—in fact, it is one of our key mantras to take action. Getting in motion leads to new discoveries, new possibilities, and new partners that will help you stay in motion. Staying in motion will increase your sense of agency and build confidence that change is possible.
Staying in Motion: Alamance County, NC’s Workspace
There is so much good about Alamance County, NC. Yet it is also a community in need of confronting a fundamental choice—be overrun by divisions and seemingly irreconcilable forces or find new ways to build bridges and forge its own future. They chose the latter. In 2021, Impact Alamance began working with The Harwood Institute to create a new path forward for the community. The initial phase of the work—which included a series of in-depth resident conversations and leader interviews—resulted in the report, Alamance Choosing Hope.
The report helped catalyze people and groups in the community to step forward to unleash a chain reaction of actions and strengthen the community's civic culture—all the while growing Alamance's civic faith. In early 2023, the action phase launched with five teams—Youth Wellness, Arts, Faith, Bridge, and Narrative—that are spearheading change efforts aligned with the community’s priorities.
Alamance Public Innovators continued their learning this month in a shared workspace—a strategic space designed to allow people to reground themselves in the work, innovate together, and engage in civic learning. In his opening remarks to attendees, Rich Harwood shared, “We need you. Alamance County needs you. And the country needs Alamance County.” That’s because Alamance County can be a model for the country as to how communities can bridge divides, build trust, Turn Outward, create real hope, and set off a chain reaction of actions amid real inequities and disparities.
One Public Innovator, reflecting on how the Harwood approach has impacted them on a personal level, shared, “This work is reminding me of who I am. I had lost sight of myself in the negativity over the years. I was feeling like sitting back and letting this just be the ugly way they are, ‘I can’t do anything about this, I’m going to just let it be.’ And this work is changing that.”
Sparking Transformation:
Celebrating Insights from the Getting Started Virtual Lab
This spring, dozens of nonprofit, foundation, and library professionals completed our Getting Started Virtual Public Innovators Lab. Among them was a cohort of seven participating as part of The Patterson Foundation’s Aspirations to Actions initiative.
One focus of the Aspirations to Action initiative is generating community plans for future disaster events like Hurricane Ian, which left many in the Suncoast region cut off from basic needs and services. To guide this work, the new Public Innovators will lead community conversations to gather public knowledge around how the Suncoast can safeguard community well-being if and when a future disaster strikes.
Following the completion of the Lab, The Public Innovators came together for a celebratory dinner where they held mock community conversations and shared insights about their experience and what it means to Turn Outward in their community.
For this group of Public Innovators, key takeaways from the Lab included:
Understanding the importance of getting out in your community
Seeing the value in pausing to listen intentionally to hear what your community aspires to
Realizing that getting out of your comfort zone is essential to engaging in public life
Recognizing that the Harwood Approach works in every aspect of your professional and personal life
These seven new alumni bring the total number of Public Innovators alumni in The Patterson Foundation's four-county area to 323! They join our growing national network of thousands who, every day, are taking action in their communities to grow civic faith.
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 and innovate around complex civic challenges, and to be a space where individuals can spend time at the Institute to develop their own ideas and skills.
The following reflections come from Ariadna Condezo, a rising junior at Tufts University who joined the Institute as a Studio Associate this summer.
Before I started working for The Harwood Institute, I was intrigued by the role of the Studio on Community within the Institute. I quickly learned that it is the Institute’s engine for innovation. The Studio’s ability to foster the creation of new ideas and practices to address challenges in innovative ways helps set the Institute apart from other organizations.
Since I started working in the Studio, I have been participating in the community research taking place in Logan and Union Counties in Ohio as part of the Institute’s initiative with the American Honda Motor Company. As I engaged in this research, one thing became abundantly clear—the Institute operates in a truly distinctive manner.
Across the multiple conversation and interview transcripts, each question was meant to explore something new and discover community needs. The answers illuminate a deeper understanding of the current key issues present for residents and the civic culture in Logan and Union Counties. That is what makes the work of the Institute unique. Instead of trying to “fix” communities and impose our ideas and methodologies, there is a deep respect and care for the communities we work with. People are placed at the core of the actions.
HARwood TEam Updates
This month, we are excited to welcome two new members to the Harwood team!
Michael Prihoda, Media and Creative Content Manager
Before joining The Harwood Institute, Michael served as the Manager of Communications for The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based education nonprofit. As a former middle school English teacher, Michael is driven by a passion for education equity and using the written word to engage people and enact positive change. He is a widely-published author of poetry and short fiction whose work has been nominated for multiple literary awards. In his role at the Institute, he forges trusted relationships with traditional and new media; amplifies the Institute's reach and key messages across different mediums; and crafts stories of change with a focus on uplifting the stories of how public innovators and communities use the Institute's approach to unleash their potential. Learn more about Michael.
Gbenga Dasylva, Ph.D., Special Assistant to the President
Gbenga most recently served as the Director of Research at the John Mitchell Program for History Justice & Race. With a Doctorate of Philosophy in Conflict Analysis & Resolution, a Postgraduate Diploma in Data Analytics, and a Master of Arts in Coexistence & Conflict Studies, Gbenga brings a multidisciplinary approach to his work, merging research, program management, and strategic planning to drive meaningful outcomes. In his role at the Institute, he amplifies the reach and impact of our work and contributes to the development of our research tools, content, and messaging that resonate with communities and public innovators nationwide. Learn more about Gbenga.
Upcoming Events
The Latest from Rich
Defining “Authentic Hope”
K-12 education is one of the most important issues to Americans. It is also, right now, one of the most contentious. Some politicians and organizations are trying to use education to divide and disrupt communities. Nonetheless, it is possible for communities to develop a shared agenda that breaks through the noise, guides action, and restores civic faith.
Please, Don’t Feel Alone. Here’s How.
It’s easy to feel exhausted, beat up, frustrated by just how hard it is to get things done nowadays. The challenges that our organizations, communities, and society face are mounting, piling up, and getting harder to address. In this Sunday Letter, Rich lays out why and how leaders must open up fundamentally different spaces for themselves to recharge and get back on a purposeful path.
On the Road: Alamance County, North Carolina
In his latest “On the Road” video, Rich explains how Alamance County can be a model for the country for how communities can bridge divides, build trust, turn outward, create real hope, and set off a chain reaction of actions amid real inequities and disparities.