Episode Summary

Liz Joyner is the Founder and President of The Village Square and Ash Hanson is the Creative Executive Officer for the Department of Public Transformation. They join Daniel Stid to talk about “An Invitation to a New Civic Future,” a public letter that the three of them co-signed with nine other colleagues earlier this year. The invitation focuses on shifting from top-down, technocratic interventions to bottom-up civic renewal that is more participatory, proximate, relational, generational and alive. Liz and Ash describe their work and the importance of irresistible, creative, place-based activities to connect with neighbors and cultivate a more enduring sense of membership and engagement in one’s community. Liz and Ash also explain the need for and promise of practicing the letter’s principles and give examples of how they have applied them in their own organizations’ work.

Chapters

(01:45): Background on The Village Square and Department of Public Transformation.

(06:27): The uniqueness of communities across the country–including rural America.

(11:45): The process that led to “An Invitation to a New Civic Future”

(22:25): A diagnosis of our current problems

(31:01): Five design principles for a new civic future:

• (31:47): Participatory
• (34:30): Proximate
• (38:26): Relational
• (42:56): Generational
• (45:44): Alive

(52:22): Why artists and creatives have an essential role to play in civic engagement

(58:32): How curating organic communities is key for sustaining long-term change

Additional Resources

• An Invitation to a New Civic Future letter
• The Village Square (Liz Joyner)
• The Department of Public Transformation (Ash Hanson)
• Warm Cookies of the Revolution
• Warm Cookies’ Tax Day Carnival
• The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again (Robert D. Putnam with Shaylyn Romney Garrett)