2017 Nonprofit Training Institute flyer- Systems Change Strategies 4-26-17
Author: admin
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Community Resilience Reports
Community Resilience Reports (Fall 2016)
The City Resilience Index (CRI) measures community resilience in four domains: health and well-being; economy and society; infrastructure and ecosystems; and governance and planning. Dickinson student researchers collected information about each of the four domains by interviewing 30 leaders from local government agencies, non-profit organizations, community development corporations and businesses, as well as by collecting and reviewing numerous public reports, websites and databases. The student researchers input the information they collected into the online CRI tool and generated a visual profile of community resilience in Carlisle. The four reports are below.
Community Resilience – Economy & Society
Community Resilience – Engagement & Wellbeing
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Collected Stories
The following are stories form the Greater Carlisle Area that have been collected as part of our Heart & Soul Project. This approach, aptly named Community Heart & Soul™, connects people with what they love most about their communities and translates those personal feelings into a blueprint for future decisions. A resident-driven approach to community planning and development, Heart & Soul focuses on building participation in local decision-making and empowering people to shape the future of their own communities.
Rails to Trails, Run, Ride Ramble: April 17, 2016
One race participate explains the importance of recreation his community.
A spectator at the race explains the importance of community events in her community.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors: April 16, 2016
Hear what one community volunteer fears losing in his community, and his thoughts on getting younger generations connected to where they live.
Heart & Soul volunteer, Kenya, interviews at the neighborhood clean up on April 16, 2016. Listen to one community member talk about what she values about Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Mount Holly Springs Marsh Preserve Clean Up: April 9, 2016
Mount Holly Springs Borough Council Member, Pam Still, interviewed volunteers about living, working and playing in Mount Holly and the importance of the Marsh Preserve.
Black History Festival, Carlisle: February 27, 2016
Heart & Soul’s soft launch at Hope Station’s Black History Festival, Feb. 27, 2016 
What is your favorite place? “The Park” – Hope Station Black History Festival, Feb. 27, 2016 -
Community Partnership Series
Community Partnership Series
The Greater Carlisle Project’s Community Partnership Series was created to be a catalyst for community dialogue by aligning discussion topics with critical and timely issues identified by community members through the GCP’s Poverty Forum (spring 2015), Annual Fall Reception (fall 2015), and the Heart & Soul Project. Two forums are held in the fall and two in the spring, and efforts are made to align the topics we discuss with contemporary issues facing our community. All forums of the Partnership Series are free and open to the public.
Past Forums:
Friday, May 5, 2017
Community Resilience Workshop
8:00 – 10:00 am
Dickinson College students, working in collaboration with the Greater Carlisle Project and the Borough of Carlisle, conducted research on measuring and increasing community resilience in Carlisle in fall 2016 as part of a course on Building Sustainable Communities. The research is being extended this semester by Dickinson students Max Lee, Matt Pasquali and Olivia Termini. Research findings, recommendations and next steps for measuring and increasing community resilience will be discussed at the workshop.If you are interested in attending the workshop, email Elizabeth Connelly connelle@dickinson.edu for more information by April 24.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Designing Systems Change Strategies to Address the Social Determinants of Health
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Co-sponsored with the Partnership for Better Health. This training is designed to help health and human service professionals, policymakers and funders better understand the potential roles of systems change strategies in improving the health of individuals and communities. The workshop will examine policies, practices and cross-sector partnerships designed to change a range of systems and have a positive impact on the social determinants of health. Case studies of communities that have addressed the social determinants of health, as well as interactive planning activities, will help attendees leave the workshop with actionable ideas and tools to bring back to their organizations. FREE ADMISSION.
Tuesday, November 3, 2016
Community Meeting
November 3, 2016: Family Sustaining Wages. Held at the New Life Community Church, this forum featured a poverty simulation, panel discussion, and break-out conversations. Panel speakers included Kathy Lacomba, deputy director for Tri-County Community Action, Mark Price, labor economist for the Keystone Research Center, and Lucy Zander, executive director of the United Way of Carlisle and Cumberland County.
Community Meeting -
Increasing Resilience
Increasing Resilience
The Greater Carlisle Project will develop recommendations for increasing community resilience, work with others to advocate for their implementation and help build the relationships and community cooperation that are essential characteristics of a resilient community. We already know some of the things that build resilience, and those that erode resilience, and these can help us get started.
What builds resilience?
- A sense of community, inclusion, belonging and trust
- Active public participation by all constituencies of our community
- Diverse and robust businesses, non-profits and public agencies
- Strong collaboration
- Good communication
- Effective leadership, planning and governance
- Investments in infrastructure, public facilities and institutions
- Protection of air, water, and green spaces
What erodes resilience?
- Alienation, bias, discrimination and distrust
- Apathy, low participation
- Weak businesses, non-profits and public agencies
- Lack of collaboration
- Poor communication
- Poor leadership, planning and governance
- Lack of investments in infrastructure, public facilities, institutions
- Degraded air, water and land
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Measuring Resilience
The Greater Carlisle Project and Borough of Carlisle partnered with Dickinson College to measure the resilience of our community. Sixteen Dickinson students conducted the research as part of a fall 2016 course, Building Sustainable Communities. The students and Carlisle were the first in the world to use the online City Resilience Index (CRI). The CRI is a framework and tool that was developed by Arup International through research with 26 cities around the world and is being used in the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities project.
The CRI measures community resilience in four domains: health and well-being; economy and society; infrastructure and ecosystems; and governance and planning. The student researchers collected information about each of the four domains by interviewing 30 leaders from local government agencies, non-profit organizations, community development corporations and businesses, as well as by collecting and reviewing numerous public reports, websites and databases. The student researchers input the information they collected into the online CRI tool and generated a visual profile of community resilience in Carlisle.
The results of the fall research were presented at a December workshop that was attended by 35 members of the Carlisle community. Participants engaged in conversations facilitated by the students, giving feedback on the approach and findings of the research, sharing their own perspectives on resilience, and exploring possible next steps.
The work is continuing. Three students, Max Lee, Matt Pasquali and Olivia Termini, are doing further research in spring 2017 by convening focus groups to refine and improve measurements of community resilience and to develop recommendations for increasing community resilience. Their findings and recommendations will be presented at a Greater Carlisle Project community meeting in May 2017 (date, time and location to be determined).
For more information about this project, contact Neil Leary (717-245-1954; learyn@dickinson.edu).
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What is Community Resilience?
Community resilience is the capacity of a community to manage short and long term stresses and shocks so as to meet essential needs of all its members, particularly its most vulnerable members. Extreme weather events like hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the economic recession, losses of major employers, civil disturbances, public health crises and increasing numbers of people struggling to find good jobs and access affordable health care, housing and food impact a community negatively and challenge its ability to function effectively.
A resilient community is able to anticipate these and other events, plan for emergency and longer-term responses, implement responses effectively, cope with and recover from the impacts, and transform itself to thrive in new circumstances. It emerges from adversity as a vibrant, economically robust, socially just and sustainable community that works for all its members.
Community resilience emerged as a concern during public conversations about updating Carlisle’s comprehensive plan. Are we as resilient as we can and need to be in Carlisle and nearby townships and boroughs? Can and should we work to deliberately increase resilience? Can this be done in ways that simultaneously serve other needs and priorities of our community?
The Greater Carlisle Project, working in collaboration with the Borough of Carlisle and Dickinson College, initiated a project to measure community resilience in Carlisle as a first step toward building resilience in the region.
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What’s the Interactive Map?
What is the Interactive Map?
The interactive map is a collection of businesses and organizations in the Greater Carlisle Area that help make our communities more livable and sustainable by working in one or more of the eight priority areas identified by the vision of the Greater Carlisle Project. Any members of the Greater Carlisle Project are invited to submit a profile to the interactive map which highlights how they contribute to the vision and mission.
The eight priority areas are: Community; Cultural Heritage, Arts & Recreation; Economic Development & Jobs, Education; Energy and Transportation; Food and Farms; Green Spaces, Blue Waters, and Clear Skies; Housing, Health, & Human Services.
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What are our Priorities?
Priorities of the Greater Carlisle Project
The eight priority areas stem from the vision of The Greater Carlisle Project. The vision of the GCP is a future in which all residents live rich, meaningful lives supported by community assets. The priority areas can be used to narrow searches on the interactive map. For example, by clicking on “Food and Farms” below, you can see community businesses or organizations that classify themselves as relating to “Food and Farms”. Groups are able to cross-list their priority areas.
Priority areas include:
Community: We celebrate diverse communities that are welcoming, inclusive, just, safe and full of life.
Cultural Heritage, Arts & Recreation: We value our region’s rich heritage, vibrant small towns, rural landscapes and growing arts, cultural and recreational opportunities that meet the needs of our diverse residents and visitors.
Economic Development & Jobs: We create family sustaining jobs that enable a vibrant quality of life for all residents. We actively support our existing businesses and seek new opportunities for economic development.
Education: We treasure the quality and diversity of our educational institutions and support their collaboration with each other and with the wider community to promote and inspire continual learning and innovation.
Energy and Transportation: We embrace energy conservation, more efficient homes, buildings and vehicles, expanded transportation options and clean energy that advance environmental, social and economic sustainability goals.
Food and Farms: We champion our farmers’ success as stewards of our agricultural landscape who feed our communities with healthy, nutritious local food.
Green Spaces, Blue Waters, & Clear Skies: We live in a landscape that is rich in parks, green spaces, farms, hiking and biking trails, water trails and diverse wildlife. We are sustained by clean air, clean water, and resilient and healthy forests, wetlands and streams.
Housing, Health, & Human Services: We support good health, human dignity and quality, affordable housing as they relate to all aspects of physical, mental and social wellbeing.
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Join GCP
Become a member of the Greater Carlisle Project (GCP) and help make our communities better, more sustainable places to live, work, raise families and play. Individuals, businesses, faith groups, schools, organizations, townships, boroughs, and government agencies can all become members.
GCP Members endorse the Vision and Mission of the Greater Carlisle Project and pledge to help communities of the Greater Carlisle Area to realize the Vision.
You decide how you will help, which activities you will engage in, and how active you will be. Examples of how you can help include:
• Reflecting the goals and values of the GCP Vision in the work that you do;
• Engaging other GCP Members in your work to amplify the positive impacts for our communities;
• Collaborating with other GCP Members in shared initiatives that build community assets;
• Sharing information, raising awareness and educating about opportunities and best practices for enriching our communities; and
• Participating in GCP events and activities that build relationships.There is no cost for joining the GCP.
Join now by endorsing the Vision and Mission of the Greater Carlisle Project and pledge to help achieve the vision.
You can also put your organization or business on the GCP Interactive MAP and promote your events on this blog so that others will know the work that you are doing to improve the communities of the Greater Carlisle Project area.
