when you hear the word community do you
think of infrastructure businesses
schools nonprofits if so you are not
wrong as all of those institutions are
important to building strong communities
however when I hear the word community
much like famed author Peter block I
simply think about a sense of belonging
in my opinion it takes all of us to
create that sense of belonging
furthermore I believe it takes regular
everyday people that believe that the
strength of community is when it’s in
the hands of all its members I’d like to
share two brief examples of community
just regular everyday people building
community the first example is very near
and dear to my heart because it’s where
I was raised and that’s the city of C
Pleasant Maryland C pleasant is a small
city just east of Washington DC and
growing up in C Pleasant during my
formative years it really wasn’t a bad
place to grow up but C Pleasant like
many of the communities in the DC
metropolitan area during the mid 80s it
was rocked pretty hard about a crack
cocaine epidemic years later when I
would come home to visit I recall seeing
banners hanging from utility poles that
red seat pleasant a city of excellence
and I remember thinking to myself wait a
second with the violence the crime the
lack of opportunities how are we a city
of excellence but C Pleasant wanted to
conceive a more perfect city so they
what I can understand at the time is
that it was aspirational it was very
that they would think that way as a
result of its unwavering and strong
leadership in 2017
see pleasant mayor Eugene grant signed a
30 million dollar agreement with IBM to
build an intelligent Operations Center
in the city of C Pleasant thus elevated
my hometown to become the world’s very
first authentic small smart city now
folks I got to tell you that’s big deal
for my community but this isn’t solely
about elected officials this is about
regular everyday people that believe in
a strength of community and then see
pleasant there are many such individuals
but I want to highlight a special young
man that I affectionately and
respectfully refer to as my little
brother and my little homie and his name
is Joe Holmes because Joe dare to care
enough to rebuild his community after
college Joe could have stayed away but
he decided to come back home and give
back because he recognized that it was
going to take people like him to engage
so that see Pleasant could improve and
become better and so when he came back
he created a nonprofit called the
generals future charity which focuses on
community investment and youth between
the ages of 7 and 18 through an array of
programming and skill development now
keep in mind Joe created this nonprofit
and can operate the nonprofit all the
while holding down a full-time job
being a devoted husband and father of
two growing boys in 2016
Joe join forces with the city of C
pleasant to create an annual free fun
day for the kids of C Pleasant as well
as the kids and families in the
surrounding communities it takes people
like Joe and others in order to fulfill
the vision of becoming a city of
excellence but you see like Park Joe and
others understood that the way that we
treat and care for one another should
not be solely based on bloodline
because here’s the reality when we are
in community with one another when we
are truly in community with one another
we are family and that’s something that
Joe understands so mayor Grant and Joe
are an example of two people in firing
others to build community and to believe
in its full potential next I want to
bring us home right here to the town of
normal and I want to talk about chip in
courageous leadership
it starts with town of normal mayor
chris cous and former city manager mark
Peterson and their willingness to
assemble a group of community volunteers
they’re listed here on a slide just
regular everyday people willing to come
together and lead this process for the
2040 Bishan Comprehensive Plan so we
were charged with thinking about a
futuristic town of normal in the year of
2040 but we were also encouraged to
address the barriers
and other social ills that prevent it
normal from reaching its full potential
and as you can imagine for a
comprehensive plan during many of our
sessions we talked about some of the
most typical topics infrastructure
quality of life how people engaged but
the group was also courageous enough to
address some of the topics that are
typically out of bounds we talked about
race we talked about policing and how we
could bring the community together the
group worked well together but as you
can imagine talking to those topics we
had our moments of discomfort our
moments of unease but nevertheless the
group persisted and we eventually
adopted the mantra radically normal as a
challenge to ourselves and others to
create a community in which we would be
seen as a destination place so as a
result of a strong work it’s strong
vision and it’s bold charge the town of
normal was awarded the Daniel Burnham
award this is a prestigious annual state
award that recognizes a plan that
advances the art and science of planning
that is something that we can all be
proud of yet history will not judge us
by what we said or wrote but rather by
what we did and perhaps how successful
we were and engaging others in creating
look sure time and money are important
but I’m appealing to your hearts it’s
great to have one or a few community
heroes but it’s simply not enough and
it’s certainly not sustainable
for a big dream so how will the how will
the city of C Pleasant support the
ongoing efforts of Joe Holmes mayor
grant and his strong leadership team as
well as ultra involved Council members
like Sarika McCarthy and of course for
our own town of normal how will we
choose to support our new town manager
Pam Reese and her strong leadership team
by taking a black and white document
albeit creative courageous and
well-written and breathe life into it so
that we can transform community together
in summary the question is what actions
will we choose to take together for it
is the combined actions of all that
makes for a strong community choose to
engage choose to act and choose to be
the power of community so that we can
all experience that sense of belonging
now that is community my friends thank
you [Applause]
think of infrastructure businesses
schools nonprofits if so you are not
wrong as all of those institutions are
important to building strong communities
however when I hear the word community
much like famed author Peter block I
simply think about a sense of belonging
in my opinion it takes all of us to
create that sense of belonging
furthermore I believe it takes regular
everyday people that believe that the
strength of community is when it’s in
the hands of all its members I’d like to
share two brief examples of community
just regular everyday people building
community the first example is very near
and dear to my heart because it’s where
I was raised and that’s the city of C
Pleasant Maryland C pleasant is a small
city just east of Washington DC and
growing up in C Pleasant during my
formative years it really wasn’t a bad
place to grow up but C Pleasant like
many of the communities in the DC
metropolitan area during the mid 80s it
was rocked pretty hard about a crack
cocaine epidemic years later when I
would come home to visit I recall seeing
banners hanging from utility poles that
red seat pleasant a city of excellence
and I remember thinking to myself wait a
second with the violence the crime the
lack of opportunities how are we a city
of excellence but C Pleasant wanted to
conceive a more perfect city so they
what I can understand at the time is
that it was aspirational it was very
that they would think that way as a
result of its unwavering and strong
leadership in 2017
see pleasant mayor Eugene grant signed a
30 million dollar agreement with IBM to
build an intelligent Operations Center
in the city of C Pleasant thus elevated
my hometown to become the world’s very
first authentic small smart city now
folks I got to tell you that’s big deal
for my community but this isn’t solely
about elected officials this is about
regular everyday people that believe in
a strength of community and then see
pleasant there are many such individuals
but I want to highlight a special young
man that I affectionately and
respectfully refer to as my little
brother and my little homie and his name
is Joe Holmes because Joe dare to care
enough to rebuild his community after
college Joe could have stayed away but
he decided to come back home and give
back because he recognized that it was
going to take people like him to engage
so that see Pleasant could improve and
become better and so when he came back
he created a nonprofit called the
generals future charity which focuses on
community investment and youth between
the ages of 7 and 18 through an array of
programming and skill development now
keep in mind Joe created this nonprofit
and can operate the nonprofit all the
while holding down a full-time job
being a devoted husband and father of
two growing boys in 2016
Joe join forces with the city of C
pleasant to create an annual free fun
day for the kids of C Pleasant as well
as the kids and families in the
surrounding communities it takes people
like Joe and others in order to fulfill
the vision of becoming a city of
excellence but you see like Park Joe and
others understood that the way that we
treat and care for one another should
not be solely based on bloodline
because here’s the reality when we are
in community with one another when we
are truly in community with one another
we are family and that’s something that
Joe understands so mayor Grant and Joe
are an example of two people in firing
others to build community and to believe
in its full potential next I want to
bring us home right here to the town of
normal and I want to talk about chip in
courageous leadership
it starts with town of normal mayor
chris cous and former city manager mark
Peterson and their willingness to
assemble a group of community volunteers
they’re listed here on a slide just
regular everyday people willing to come
together and lead this process for the
2040 Bishan Comprehensive Plan so we
were charged with thinking about a
futuristic town of normal in the year of
2040 but we were also encouraged to
address the barriers
and other social ills that prevent it
normal from reaching its full potential
and as you can imagine for a
comprehensive plan during many of our
sessions we talked about some of the
most typical topics infrastructure
quality of life how people engaged but
the group was also courageous enough to
address some of the topics that are
typically out of bounds we talked about
race we talked about policing and how we
could bring the community together the
group worked well together but as you
can imagine talking to those topics we
had our moments of discomfort our
moments of unease but nevertheless the
group persisted and we eventually
adopted the mantra radically normal as a
challenge to ourselves and others to
create a community in which we would be
seen as a destination place so as a
result of a strong work it’s strong
vision and it’s bold charge the town of
normal was awarded the Daniel Burnham
award this is a prestigious annual state
award that recognizes a plan that
advances the art and science of planning
that is something that we can all be
proud of yet history will not judge us
by what we said or wrote but rather by
what we did and perhaps how successful
we were and engaging others in creating
look sure time and money are important
but I’m appealing to your hearts it’s
great to have one or a few community
heroes but it’s simply not enough and
it’s certainly not sustainable
for a big dream so how will the how will
the city of C Pleasant support the
ongoing efforts of Joe Holmes mayor
grant and his strong leadership team as
well as ultra involved Council members
like Sarika McCarthy and of course for
our own town of normal how will we
choose to support our new town manager
Pam Reese and her strong leadership team
by taking a black and white document
albeit creative courageous and
well-written and breathe life into it so
that we can transform community together
in summary the question is what actions
will we choose to take together for it
is the combined actions of all that
makes for a strong community choose to
engage choose to act and choose to be
the power of community so that we can
all experience that sense of belonging
now that is community my friends thank
you [Applause]
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