March 2023 Newsletter: Rooting Our Work in Civic Faith
Our work is different. We hear this from almost everyone who touches it. They tell us our approach gives them a sense of possibility and agency, and that they put it to use in their daily work and lives. This is because our work is rooted in a practical philosophy of Civic Faith, which holds that placing people, community and a culture of shared responsibility at the center of our shared lives will create a more equitable, just, inclusive and hopeful society for all.
Getting Started Virtual Lab
More than 60 public innovators are currently enrolled in the Getting Started Virtual Lab, undergoing weekly interactive sessions with our team of Certified Harwood Coaches. They are learning how to catalyze a chain reaction of actions in their community, developing ways to discover what matters to people, discerning where their community is starting, and identifying how to show up more intentionally in work and life.
Within the first 30 minutes of the first session, participants were already noticing the difference between the Harwood approach and how they have worked in the past. One participant felt a “flip of the switch” when introduced to the idea of Turning Outward, realizing how impactful her organization’s work could be if they centered the community, rather than their own wants. Others identified that the power for them in this work is that it “causes you to slow down. It asks you to listen to people” and “embrace the discomfort” of knowing what really matters to people, especially when it challenges you to rethink how your own efforts are aligned with the community. One individual said, “It’s not just optimism. Hope is something you can put work and effort into. It’s contagious.”
Due to demand, the Getting Started Lab will be offered a second time in May. Space is limited, register today!
Rich’s Healing & Hope Tour: Norfolk, VA
“I had the pleasure of attending Mr. Harwood’s motivational speaking engagement at the Slover Library. I have attended several of these speaking engagements in my lifetime. Most of the guest speakers talk about themselves by saying, ‘I did this,’ or ‘I did that.’ But Mr. Harwood was a different speaker. He talked about what people can do together once we bridge the gap between each other. After all, we all want the same things for our family and community. Thanks, Mr. Harwood, for your years of experience and insight.”
-Sherron Taylor
Norfolk, VA, hosted Rich’s Healing & Hope Tour last month as the kickoff to their Ignite 2023! community change initiative.
The challenges in Norfolk are real. People across the city want more affordable housing and to feel safer in their communities. They want to improve their schools and they want Norfolk to be a community where people can envision retiring, where renters and homeowners alike are invested in their neighborhoods, and where youth are more involved.
In 2020, the City of Norfolk began applying the principles of the Harwood approach in their work. The Neighborhood Services Team is currently mapping all 120 neighborhoods and their civic leagues to our Stages of Community Life, as defined in Community Rhythms. During his visit, Rich worked with them on their approach for doing this and the implications for how best to use this framework to develop and support neighborhood associations and measure their impact. Neighborhood associations and civic leagues are conduits for creating a sense of belonging in rapidly changing cities like Norfolk and solving local challenges.
There is work to do in Norfolk. Residents need to see themselves not merely as consumers of services, but champions of where they live. There is hunger for this change—from the city government team, civic leagues and residents who stepped forward to be part of Rich’s engagement. His visit set the tone and sparked new possibilities for the community as they move into the next phase of resident engagement. As one member of the Neighborhood Services Team remarked, it created a sense of shared accountability, by “making people ask, ‘What am I doing? What can I do?’”
News from the Studio on Community:
New Work on “Civic Joy”
The Harwood Studio on Community, established in 2017, is designed to create the time and space within the Institute necessary to explore new areas and innovate around complex civic challenges, and where individuals can spend time at the Institute to develop their own ideas and skills. Since its inception, the Studio has explored how public ideas spread, what it takes to make invisible change visible in communities, the nature and practice of civic rituals in a changing society, and the emergence and meaning of a new American narrative.
Currently, the Studio is exploring the idea of “civic joy.” Our country is in the midst of a mental health crisis; people are struggling with feelings of deep loneliness and loss of control and agency. One antidote to this is civic joy. The Studio’s work will look at how to define civic joy and how it can be manifested through people’s actions. Stay tuned for updates about this new work!
The Latest from Rich
Public Kinship Webinar
Rich joined Dr. Bobby Austin, the President of Neighborhood Associates, to discuss how to engage various communities to see what can be done to build community spirit in pursuit of a common enterprise to combat the divisiveness holding back progress.