Reflections from the Studio on Community: Civic Culture is the Vital Foundation for a Healthy 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 Lila Kenney, a senior at the Ohio State University who joined the Institute as a Studio Associate for summer 2025.

My junior year of college at The Ohio State University reflected the national political sphere and proved instrumental in establishing my current perception of the value of community-based change. I witnessed a divisive presidential election, diminishing my hope of progress at a national level, and participated in on-campus peaceful protests to save programs close to my heart, just to lose them anyway. All throughout, my hope in community-level, local change being the path forward was further cemented. Therefore, discovering The Harwood Institute felt like the manifestation of my newfound beliefs. 

Spending the summer at The Harwood Institute has furthered my understanding that sustainable community change starts with culture, not generic programs and initiatives. I spent extensive time creating videos and digital content featuring Rich Harwood speaking about civic engagement and the power of turning outward. This began as an assignment to translate speeches into videos demonstrating The Harwood Institute’s key messages, yet it developed into a deeper learning journey. To effectively communicate these ideas, I had to fully absorb them myself.  

Key moments often stuck out to me in absorbing these influential speeches. Transformatively, I now know that community change isn’t about pouring time and energy into more programs– these often drain people’s willingness to stay engaged. Instead, a healthy civic culture must be cultivated– rooted in trust, mutual responsibility, and listening. An outside force cannot impose this culture, it must be catalyzed from within. Producing content reflecting this idea necessitated a deep and genuine belief that turning outward is the path forward. I am now grounded in the thought that civic culture is the vital foundation for a healthy community. 

Community isn’t something you build for people, it’s something you build with them. The first step is creating the conditions where people feel seen, trusted, and invited into the work. These lessons will carry into my future as a public servant, and I am grateful for my time at The Harwood Institute, which allowed me to share these ideas on a larger scale than a solo voice.