Eight Creative Communities Leading the Way to Vibrancy—One Small Step at a Time

We are all seeking vibrancy, and none of us need to go it alone. Benchmarking what other communities are doing and harvesting best practices help us learn from each other. That’s always important—but it’s especially critical in challenging times.

As part of EntreCon, Pensacola’s virtual business and leadership conference held a few weeks back, we sponsored a Community Resiliency Award contest. We were looking for small, incremental steps communities have taken to get stronger and more vibrant—steps that have created a lot of “bang for the buck” and are easy to replicate.

I’d like to devote this week’s Strong Towns column to sharing a little about each winner. Here’s a brief description of what each community did and why it was chosen.

The 2020 EntreCon Community Resiliency Award Winners:

1. Chillicothe, Ohio. The city’s Community Response Team, created at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a unified approach for addressing local needs and collaborating on solutions. The team included city employees, government agencies, nonprofits, schools, mental health providers, housing authorities, as well as the chamber of commerce. By coordinating efforts and getting everyone rowing in the same direction, they were able to quickly tackle emerging problems like hunger, housing, and mental health.

Why They Were Chosen: The Community Response Team is a perfect model for how stakeholders in a community can collaborate and generate big results. It wasn’t about whose job it was or who got the credit; it was about creating unity and executing quickly. While created as a system for managing emergencies, it’s a blueprint for how communities can break down silos and work together to solve their most pressing problems—a key part of creating a great place to live.

2. Columbia, Mississippi. In 2018 Columbia put together a downtown holiday celebration—complete with Christmas décor, light show, music, and fireworks—that grew into a series of nightly events that brought more than 60,000 visitors to town. They used this event as a stepping stone and blueprint for other programming events. A partnership was formed that became “Experience Columbia,” resulting in an expansion of the city’s July Fourth Freedom Fest, an outdoor art event, and more.

Why They Were Chosen: The way these downtown events unfolded and grew demonstrates perfectly how programming draws people downtown. This is important because it gives entrepreneurs fertile ground for their businesses. Holidays are a great opportunity to do easy things to get people downtown. You can start small. A lighted tree, pop-up craft shops, hot chocolate, and Santa Claus will attract more people than you think!

3. Elkins, West Virginia. The chamber wanted to find a way to help everyone come together, agree on a common vision, and create a plan of action to move toward vibrancy. It kicked off the project by starting a book club around Building a Vibrant Community. By discussing the book and creating newspaper articles around its ideas, the chamber was able to begin educating and engaging the community.

Why They Were Chosen: Communities are made up of people who have many differing ideas and opinions. The book club made a complex subject manageable. It helped people start exploring which principles of vibrancy made sense for Elkins. It gave leaders and citizens common ground and a common language for discussing what they need to do.

4. Hot Springs, Arkansas. The chamber teamed up with a local business to create a “Will You Be My Neighbor?” campaign. Its purpose? To encourage entrepreneurship and engage citizens in selecting what type of business should go into an empty space downtown. They held a contest and built a charity component into the voting process. In the end, the citizens chose a boutique grocery store as the winning idea.

Why They Were Chosen: We loved that this contest had several great byproducts: It got people engaged in their community and raised money to help people impacted by the pandemic. Also, since people voted for the winning business, it will likely have plenty of foot traffic almost immediately. (This will benefit everyone downtown.)

5. Martin County, Florida. The economic council made a commitment to measurement. They conducted a Quality of Life Survey and created a community dashboard so that people can clearly see where the most critical issues are. These measurement tools are helping them lay a solid foundation for smart, targeted improvement.

Why They Were Chosen: It’s vital to diagnose before treating. Martin County is bringing a level of specificity to help people get focused on what matters most. When people understand the “why” behind proposed changes, they’re more likely to buy in. Measurement helps stop dissention, speeds up decision-making, makes transparency easy, and provides benchmarks that help communities see their progress year after year.

6. Palatka, Florida. The first step in any big endeavor is to develop a plan. A team of business leaders started the process with a community feedback contest that asked the citizens for their ideas on what is needed to make downtown Palatka “the place to be.” They offered a $1,000 prize to be randomly drawn from all participants. They received over 300 responses, and the survey became the basis for the strategic plan.

Why They Were Chosen: We liked that Palatka was looking not just for ideas but also engagement and creativity. They came up with a good way to maximize response. The ideas were incredibly clever and tied to the community’s identity in a far better way than any outside planner could do. And there’s been great ongoing enthusiasm.

7. Springfield, Ohio. Springfield is laser-focused on training and workforce development. By addressing specific training needs, they’ve attracted funding from community sponsors. Their goal is to keep current businesses strong, become a talent hotspot, attract outside investment, and promote entrepreneurship.

Why They Were Chosen: Their plan resonates with one of our bedrock principles: Talent follows investment, and investment follows place. When a community is a great place to live, people will want to move there. When this happens, new companies will follow, which in turn attracts more talent. This is how vibrant communities happen: organically.

8. Stillwater, Oklahoma. They created the Stillwater Day of Gratitude to get people focused on what’s great about their city. They asked people to become world-class “noticers,” looking for (and publicly and privately thanking) folks who quietly go about the work of making Stillwater better. By harnessing the power of gratitude, they hope to make bright spots shine and create a happier, healthier, more positive Stillwater.

Why They Were Chosen: We believe vibrancy always starts with a “what’s right” mindset. It’s easy to talk about what’s wrong in a town and overlook bright spots. But we live up to (or down to) our own expectations. By focusing on the positives, we can shift the culture and create a stronger, happier, more connected community.

It’s a privilege to work with so many wonderful communities. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into their creativity, optimism, and enthusiasm.

My hope is to eventually compile a library of good ideas and best practices that other communities can learn from, replicate, refine, and share. I am grateful to these Community Resiliency Award winners for making the first contributions, and look forward to hearing what they come up with in the future. Let’s all get stronger together!

(As seen in Strong Towns)