Rebecca Sanborn Stone

Our communities face a host of challenges -- climate change, economic decline, demographic change, natural hazards and more. We know how important strong *physical* infrastructure is to keeping our communities safe -- roads and bridges, power lines, communications networks and more. And luckily, communities increasingly see the value of investing in strong *green* infrastructure to become resilient -- rain gardens and swales, healthy soils and upland forests. But very few communities are investing in *civic* infrastructure, which may be the most important area of all. Civic infrastructure is the social ties, communication and information channels, and local culture that allow people to work together to solve problems and create a thriving community. I offer a keynote presentation that introduces the concept of civic infrastructure and shares inspiring examples of how communities are building it. I also offer planning workshops around this critical concept for communities today.

Tired of the same old public meetings where no one shows up? Not reaching people through Facebook or newspaper notices? It's time to shake it up. Today, it's the creative outreach and engagement approaches that matter. I share examples of unusual, surprising and fun ways to spread the word, reach people in the community, gather feedback, and build energy and participation. This talk can range from a short presentation or keynote with an overview of the ideas to a full day workshop for planning an engagement strategy. We cover a variety of high tech and "high touch" strategies for all ages and demographics, as well as ways to design a strategy that helps reach the right audiences. In full day workshops, we use an approach called community-based social marketing to think strategically about stakeholders, understand who they are and their motivations, and design creative ways to work with them and meet their needs.

Community revitalization work doesn't have to take thousands of dollars and many years. It can start with something as simple as one person and a great idea. In this fast-paced presentation, I introduce the concepts of placemaking and DIY community change. Then I share a number of customized examples and stories of how people and communities are doing big things with very limited resources. I tailor the examples and content to you and your group -- whether focused on sustainability, education, community development, resilience, creativity or economic development. I also frequently adapt this talk to be an interactive workshop, where teams or participants work together to design their own DIY projects.