Community Commons: Pursued with Heart

Copyright

2019

Published By

Community Commons

At Community Commons we’ve spent the last decade sharing stories of how others bring about community change. Now, it’s time to tell one of our stories. You may have noticed that our site is “under construction” at the moment. Without sugar-coating it, we recently traveled down a development path that didn’t allow us to take the Commons where we think it needs to go. Luckily, we listened to our users and partners and realized early on that we needed to make a course correction. We’re currently in the process of getting back to the core of who we are and what we believe in.
 
We launched Community Commons almost a decade ago as a public-good resource for change-makers working to advance equitable community health and well-being. As we prepared to launch the next version back in January, we added a new technology partner. As is sometimes the case with partnerships, we came to find that we had different visions and aspirations for the site. We have since parted ways and we wish them the best, but the Commons is a non-profit organization that exists to serve the communities’ movement. Period. We called our site the “Commons,” which means all that we create, we share together!
 

Tell Us About the Dog Mural

In all good journey stories, there is a moment when the traveling troupe realizes just how committed they are to each other and to their mission. For us at IP3, this happened early one morning when team member and talented photographer Stacy Wegley shared with us the photograph you see below.

This is a living mural and is considered one of the first in the country to combine public art and vertical green space. It is obviously meant to bring joy, hope, and beauty to the local community, but it was Stacy’s words that truly inspired our team.
 
“This living mural in Covington, KY shares much in common with Community Commons. It was imagined by community change-makers, advanced through public and private partnerships, pursued with heart long before it was visible.The project advanced and evolved with the strong starts, steps backward, lessons learned, and leaps forward all born of actively living in shared values. At this stage it was a work in progress. As it becomes all it is aspired to be, it will transform its community through a living, work of art- that will grow, be pruned, and bloom with the changing seasons, much like us at Community Commons.”
 
As our team learned more about the mural, the incredible story of the visionary behind it, and the positivity of the artists that created it, we knew we were on the right path again. At Community Commons we are committed — truly, deeply, passionately committed — to bringing you stories of hope and connecting you to tools, data, and resources to support your work to improve communities.