The Lake County community was invited to a free engagement initiative event put on by the Legacy Foundation and Community Heart & Soul on Thursday, September 5. The event took place at the Merrillville Branch of the Lake County Public Library.
Jillian Foster, program associate for Community Heart & Soul, feels that this workshop event allows for the community to be more interactive and get a better understanding for both organizations.
“Today is all about getting people excited about engaging in their community,” Foster said. “We have a series of activities for everyone here to help people that aren’t affiliated with our foundation understand what we do.”
The event opened up with a table providing food for all attendees and some interactive questions along the wall. Each resident was asked their age, gender, how long they have been in their community and the work they have done for the community as well.
Community Heart & Soul is a resident-driven process that strives to engage places to identify what they love most about their respective communities. For over a decade, it has partnered with more than 90 small cities and towns across the United States.
“Community philanthropy is all about engaging locally to find out what our community cares about the most,” Foster said. “It’s exciting that this is the first place in Indiana that we’ve covered. It’s great to work together with people who are just as eager as we are to do community engagement activities.”
There are three principles that Community Heart & Soul takes pride in promoting. These include involving everyone in their communities, focusing on what matters the most and playing the long game. Ian Moran, senior program associate for Community Heart & Soul, believes these are significant traits to help create a better community environment.
“There are a lot of hidden voices that don’t have the opportunity or don’t know how to contribute,” Moran said. “It’s more successful for the community when everybody plays a part. We want to ask people about the positives in their community. The process of Community Heart & Soul normally takes at least 18 months, but we see this as something that lasts even longer. Once people go through that process, they can understand everything around them with a plan of action to carry into the future.”
The Legacy Foundation is motivated to transform Lake County through leadership and philanthropic support to ensure there are equitable opportunities in all of their communities. Kelly Anoe, president and CEO of the Legacy Foundation, feels confident that their collaboration with Community Heart & Soul will help them in satisfying their mission.
“A lot of it is work that the Legacy Foundation has been doing for years,” Anoe said. “We’ve been working in the communities and focusing on resident leadership development. Community Heart & Soul’s team provides a national model with the tools and resources for us to do this in a strategic way.”
Anoe outlined a plan of how the Legacy Foundation has been active throughout the community over the past decade. They have experience with multi-year processes for addressing complex issues in communities such as Gary Miller, Gary Emerson, Hobart Northwest and Griffith. The Legacy Foundation also gave residents the opportunity to share their vision for improving Lake County communities through a day of civic conversations.
“People would get the chance to share what they loved in their community and anything they wanted to change,” Anoe said. “We used the feedback for strategic planning, from grants that we were awarded, and established new connections to turn into community action awards. Everything was resident driven. It was great to see people coming together for what they wanted in their neighborhood.”
Attendees were also asked to consider their hopes for the future of their community. Some of the responses include increased engagement, enhanced sense of community, broader representation, known identity and improved collaboration.
For more information on the Legacy Foundation or Community Heart & Soul, you can visit their websites.
