Forum Activity for @deb-wisniewski

Who Are You? Why are you here?

ABCD and Inclusive Communities/People with Disabilities

[quote="Duckey"]

Hi Deb- Regarding the "drive-by" community, I completely concur with you. I believe that we can do to promote inclusiveness in the same manner as ABCD pursues a results-driven strategy to truly capitalise on people's abilities.

Please introduce myself to the Cutting Edge programme personnel. It appears that their website is down.

[/quote]

Hi Duckey - I don’t personally know who’s working for Cutting Edge right now but I did find their website is working. You can find it here: https://www.edgewood.edu/cutting-edge

Welcome to ABCD in Action!

Rural Resource: They Is Us

ABCD and Rural Communities

Some of you may have heard me say that, in our small, remote rural community, "we is it", meaning that if we want something done, we need to do it ourselves. Now I'm come across "They Is Us", a wonderful publication about the community conversations that took place in our county (Door County WI) about growing older. I encourage you to check it out, both because it's a wonderful model for engaging people in conversation as well as for the learning and ideas that were generated through the process. 

They Is Us: Voices from a Community Conversation about Growing Older in Door County, Wisconsin

Sharing our Context

ABCD and Rural Communities

I live on 5 acres of woods, surrounding by several hundred acres of woods, on a small island on Lake Michigan in the US. We are a 30-minute ferry ride from the mainland. Our tiny community has about 700 full-time residents, a couple thousand people who have a second home here and come for the summer and/or vacations, plus numerous visitors who vacation or come for the day. People here are very creative.... lots of musicians and artists, plus people being creative about coming up with different ways to earn money. Much of our economy is based on tourism. We were one of those seasonal folks - We've had our house for 15+ years and moved here full-time 3+ years ago. We're excited these days because there are a number of new babies being born, which means their parents - young couples/families - are staying here and choosing to raise their children here (at least for now). Biggest challenge right now is internet.... expensive, unreliable, not fast, doesn't reach everywhere. 

As we like to say here... "we are it"....meaning if we want something to happen, we all have to make it happen. As a result, lots of engaged folks.

What does it mean to be Rural?

ABCD and Rural Communities

wow! You have a lot here, Derek. Just skimming through this, one thing popped out at me. I actually felt like I had more privacy (and isolation) when I lived in the city, compared to the very rural area I live in now. I feel like people know a lot more about me now, pay more attention to what I'm doing, share info about me (gossip?) now that I live in a rural area. We have a joke in our family... when we drive around here, we don't need to use turn signals... why? because everyone already knows where I'm going!

Seriously, in the city, we had some great people in our neighborhood but it was really easy to disconnect from people. Here in our rural community, the typical greeting when we first moved here was "Now who are you and whose house do you live in?" People would stop and ask you that even at the grocery store. 

One other thought.... I see so many rural areas (including ours) increasingly moving away from farming due to the mega farms that are moving in and focusing more on tourism - people visiting from the cities and "getting away from it all" for a week or a weekend. Have other folks seen that as well? 

Deb

PS We definitely live in a rural area and we are a town (of 700 people), not a hamlet or a village. I wonder how those are defined and who decides....

Small Town Creed: An Idea-Friendly Town

ABCD and Rural Communities

It's pretty wonderful, isn't it? It was good to see you this morning!

Deb

The Anti-Indigenous Handbook

ABCD and Indigenous Communities/First Nations

I came across this today and thought I'd share it with you all. I admit that I just skimmed it (I usually try to read things pretty thoroughly before sharing) but it came from a reliable source and I thought you all might want to check it out.

The Anti-indigenous Handbook: https://www.texasobserver.org/the-anti-indigenous-handbook/

Deb

Changing the Narrative about Native Americans: A guide for allies

ABCD and Indigenous Communities/First Nations

I thought this looked interesting....

Changing the narrative about Native Americans: A guide for allies

updated by @deb-wisniewski: 09/30/20 02:27:17PM

Small Town Creed: An Idea-Friendly Town

ABCD and Rural Communities

I was able to participate in a really interesting conference - the Radically Rural Summit - on Sept. 24. One of the first things I want to share from this event is the Small Town Creed, from Saveyour.town. It's so asset-based without even mentioning ABCD. You can find it here or open the attached file.

You might also want to watch this short video about creating an idea-friendly town

Working On: Updating our website

Community News

Hi Christine - Before I click on your link, can you tell us something about your organization and what you hope to do with your website? That would help us know what we're looking at/for...

Thanks!

Deb

What is your favorite resource or tool when you work with rural communities?

ABCD and Rural Communities

I'm always interested in what works with different communities. Is there a particular resource or tool that you find helpful when working with rural communities?

updated by @deb-wisniewski: 07/10/20 04:54:49PM