The Borderlands Pilot towns, Killingly CT and Exeter RI, are off to a great start with Phase I, the Heart and Soul Visioning Process. The pilot teams have been meeting on a monthly basis to plan the activities of this phase. The first public outreach activities are focus group interviews. Pilot team members have reached out to the community to identify members of the various stakeholder groups and encourage them to attend group interviews. This is the first step in identifying the heart and soul of the pilot towns. Questions will be asked such as, "What if lost in your town, would change it forever?" and "What three words or phrases would you use to describe your town?" The results of the focus group interviews will be used to inform the rest of the visioning process.
Next steps of Phase I include an online community survey and visioning workshops. The surveys will be online within the next two weeks and we encourage everyone to participate. This activity is designed to get input from folks who won't or can't attend group events and to ask more detailed questions based on the results of the focus group interviews. The survey results will be presented at the Visioning Workshops which will be held on June 9 in Killingly and on June 12 in Exeter. There will be a variety of hands-on activities as well, including the use of key pad polling to get immediate feedback from the audience. There will also be another Visioning Workshop in September where all of this information will be compiled and used to develop a vision for future of the pilot towns.
Please help us spread the word about these exciting projects. If you are looking for more information you can see the project website at www.borderlandsproject.org or contact me, Susan Westa Borderlands VIP Coordinator, at susan.westa@uconn.edu or 860-774-9600.