We are starting a new series at the Creative Class Exchange entitled “Creative Capstones.” Every few weeks, we will highlight a creative community, inspiring leader, or innovative program that has an interesting perspective on creativity and the changing global economy.
This week, we interviewed Jeremy Holmes from Roanoke, Virginia. Jeremy is a transportation alternatives coordinator with the Roanoke Valley Alleghany Regional Commission and a volunteer “community connector” with the Roanoke Creative Communities Leadership Project (CCLP). Jeremy provided us with his insights on Roanoke, the region’s CCLP successes, and what it takes to build a successful community engagement effort.
Creative Class Group (CCG): Tell us about Roanoke. What makes it a special community?
Jeremy Holmes: In a purely technical sense, Roanoke is a small urban area of about 200,000 people tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia, a place with four seasons (a novelty for a California native like myself), easy access to everything from the Appalachian Trail to Washington, D.C., a fairly stable job market and housing prices, and major educational and technological resources in our own backyard.
I think it’s also a place on the cusp of greatness, perfectly balanced between urban vitality and natural beauty, cultural renaissance and a respect for tradition. Well, maybe not perfectly; there is still lively debate and the occasional personality conflicts of its various constituencies; but for me, even the disagreements suggest a community that’s doing anything but standing still, and reveals the passion that many of its residents feel for our home.
CCG: For over a year now, Roanoke has been working initiatives that evolved from the Creative Community Leadership Program. Describe these initiatives.
Holmes: There are three major initiatives. CNR2030, the project I’m involved with, is creating an information and communications clearinghouse for all the sustainability initiatives in the region, with the goal of having Roanoke reach carbon neutrality by 2030. 81 Reasons to Connect has inventoried the region’s many higher education and technology resources and is currently fundraising in order to produce a joint marketing video to promote the area’s assets in hopes of attracting creative professionals to the Valley. The group has raised more than $20,000 and still going. S.T.A.R – the Spirit of Tolerance and Art in Roanoke has teamed up with Roanoke Yea! (Youth Experiencing the Amenities) to work on a series of arts and cultural events, including a Sunday Bridgewalk to bring together Roanoke’s often segregated faith communities, and Down by Downtown, a spring music festival.
CCG: What have the initiatives accomplished so far? How have they impacted the region?
Holmes: In many ways, the programs are just getting started. I think a lot of us came out of the initial two-day seminar with a lot of excitement about our goals and initial program visions, but when we began the hard work of putting together business and marketing plans, and began to take a deeper look at what the gaps were in the region, there was a lot of refining to be done. CNR2030, for example, came out with grand visions of a sustainable living education center, only to realize that one already existed. A lot of our time ended up being devoted to research to find out where we fit in, and during that we got a better understanding of the amount of work already being done in the region on our chosen area, and allowed us to narrow our focus. Then again, S.T.A.R. and Yea! were able to tap into the fast-growing music scene in Roanoke and get Down by Downtown off the ground quickly.
Another way of thinking about it is that, while our CCLP projects are at various stages of completion, the CCLP program succeeded in bringing together a wide variety of people who are continuing to volunteer their time over a year later, and who are still dedicated to bring their initiatives to fruition. I think that says a lot about how dedicated people are to keeping this community vital.
CCG: Developing community initiatives can be challenging. What obstacles has the program had to overcome?
Holmes: I think the main obstacle has been time. The people who are drawn to programs like CCLP are, if Roanoke was any indication, people who are already active in the community, though they might be plugged into their particular niches and circles. Getting all these disparate folks into the same room can sometimes be a scheduling nightmare, and we’ve all got obligations with other projects and boards. That said, everyone involved in the CCLP program was dedicated to their projects and have continued to stick with them, finding ways to meet virtually or work independently when necessary.
CCG: For other communities considering a community engagement program, what is your advice? What’s critical to ensuring their initiatives will be successful?
Holmes: I’m not sure that it’s possible to insure all the initiatives will be successful, just like it’s not possible to insure than every entrepreneurial effort will be successful. What’s important is for a community to recognize the power of its creative class and change-agents, to draw them together and give them the opportunity and support to dream up some crazy ideas and see what happens. These folks want to be involved because they believe in the communities they live in; even if individual initiatives die on the vine, it’s unlikely the initiative of the individuals will do the same.
For more information about Roanoke and its creative initiatives, visit www.thecreativeconnectors.com.
April 16th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences with us, Jeremy.
Some suggestions:
1. the “joint marketing video” – throw together a cheap pilot version. It will give the fund-raisers something solid to back up their efforts, and also enable you to get input from stake-holders to improve the real thing.
2. “people who are already active” – yes, at one time I tried to be involved in two high-intensity volunteer projects at once. It was overwhelming. So, we must structure our additional programs to be as low demand as possible.
3. “crazy ideas” – please allocate these projects to their originators, not to people who think the ideas really are crazy. Surely nothing kills a project faster than “I have a great idea, now you do it ….”
The folks in Roanoke are fortunate to have you and your colleagues dedicating your time and energy to them.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Mike L.,
Working backwards: Don’t worry, we’re all taking ownership of our own crazy idea. Something that has been particularly pleasant about this experience is that everyone involved really seems willing to work. Everyone has been involved with projects where the bulk of the work ends up falling to a small handful of folks, but that hasn’t really been the case here.
Something I’d follow-up the “people who are already active” comment with is that, on the front end, it’s a good idea to try to bring a good mix of folks into the program that are interested but aren’t overly obligated, if possible. I’m not sure how to do that, but that’s one of the benefits of working with the Creative Class Group.
Thanks for your comments.