Community Matters: Creative advocacy and the future of community agency

Lately, I have been feeling tired and a bit discouraged.

I’ve been feeling tired and discouraged because it seems like everywhere you look, there are actions, institutions, inventions, and movements that are making it harder and harder for communities to take meaningful control over their future. Economic forces, political forces, environmental forces, technological forces ― each of these and more threaten daily to rob individuals and communities of agency over critical decisions that affect them deeply.

If you are paying attention to the world around us, you might find yourself feeling similarly. Particularly if you happen to be working on behalf of a local community or organization, you might be struggling to know just what to do about this growing sense that we are losing ― or have already lost ― control over key decisions that will shape our individual and collective stories.

As I reflect on our current cultural condition, it occurs to me that there are a number of paradoxes at the heart of our shared plight. Here are just a handful of examples.

Though communities have become more and more connected via technology, such tools have divided us in increasingly problematic ways.

Though communities are more fully aware of their need for collective action, they are becoming less and less capable of collaboration and constructive compromise.

Though communities have greater access to information than ever before, they are less certain about who and what information they should trust.

Though communities are more aware of the need for increased equity and inclusion, they more acutely feel the negative impact of its absence.

Though society is awash in resources that should be useful for overcoming the challenges we face, such resources are neither widely accessible nor directed by those who need them most.

At RiverWise, the community nonprofit organization that I lead, I have the distinct luxury of being able to think about and respond to the kinds of matters described above. And, for the last year, in close partnership with New Sun Rising, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit organization, we have been working to create resources that can help to address this growing sense of community disempowerment.

Last week RiverWise and New Sun Rising released the Creative Advocacy Playbook, a dynamic resource that provides adaptive, evolving and practically applicable tools for practitioners of community-focused work. The central motivation behind the Playbook is to assist local communities to advocate more effectively for the kinds of changes they want to bring about in the future. Creative advocates, as we describe them, are individuals who are committed to understanding, engaging and transforming mindsets in ways that produce greater agency and more vibrancy in their community.

The Playbook was initially presented during a Creative Advocacy Workshop, where leaders received information about the concepts and strategies of creative advocacy, individual mentoring for campaign plan development, and pitch competition where participants shared their campaign plans with a panel of judges. Three creative advocacy campaigns were then selected to receive a $5,000 grant and three months of technical assistance to support the implementation of their plan.

The form of advocacy at the heart of the Playbook is public and intentional, employing artistic practice to disrupt prevailing narratives and strengthen community movement toward an identified goal. One of the key assumptions behind this work is the belief that creatives — artists, writers, artisans, performers, documentarians, and more — are uniquely poised to use their skills to expose, explore, and elevate a specific issue, all while inviting others to think critically, ask questions, and find their own way to be active participants in that movement.

Our hope is that when undertaken intentionally and deployed wisely, creative advocacy can help communities become better informed, inspired, connected, mobilized, and resourced to realize their shared vision for the future. Creative advocacy is meant to engage a wider group of people in dialogue and provide opportunities for them to contribute to the future that they envision.

On May 21, creative advocacy will be on full display from 7 to 9 pm at an event sponsored by RiverWise, New Sun Rising, and The Genesis Collective called “Beyond Rust.” The event will be held at B.F. Jones Memorial Library, and will bring together 8 area artists who have been commissioned to create art that reflects on “Boom & Bust,” a documentary produced by RiverWise that follows a handful of community leaders from Beaver and Allegheny counties who, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, took a trip to Louisiana’s chemical corridor to learn from locals about the impact of petrochemicals. The film poses questions about the future health and vibrancy of Beaver County in the wake of Shell opening its ethane cracker plant in Potter Township.

Utilizing insights from the Creative Advocacy Playbook, artists and community members will undertake a guided discussion about how to grow community agency, how to organize more effectively, and how to evaluate the future success of such initiatives.

The public is welcome and invited to attend “Beyond Rust.” Registration, which can be found on RiverWise’s Facebook page, is encouraged, but not required.

I have been doing community-based work long enough now to realize that there is no magic bullet for curing what ails society. Certainly “Beyond Rust” will only begin to scratch the surface. Our challenges are wide, our limitations are many, and our resources are few. That being said, I remain increasingly convinced that the only productive path forward will require a more informed, inspired, connected, mobilized and resourced public. I am hopeful that the Creative Advocacy Playbook will be a useful resource and valuable tool for communities around the region who are seeking to push back against the many forces arrayed against them.

So, come on out on May 21 and see these assumptions in action. We will all benefit from your presence, your feedback, and your participation.

I hope to see you there!

Daniel Rossi-Keen, Ph.D., is the co-owner of eQuip Books, a community bookstore in Aliquippa and the executive director of RiverWise, a nonprofit employing sustainable development practices to create a regional identity around the rivers of Beaver County. You can reach Daniel at daniel@getriverwise.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Community Matters: Creative advocacy and the future of community agency