As their responses to the pandemic have proven again and again, Wisconsinites are resilient. Wisconsin Humanities’ newest initiative, Community Powered, will help communities recognize and act upon their strengths to address today’s challenges by understanding the sources of that resilience.

For the 2022-2023 pilot of the initiative, Community Powered has partnered with the public libraries in Appleton, Racine, and Spooner, and with the Forest County Potawatomi Cultural Center, Library and Museum. In each community, Wisconsin Humanities will hire a recent college graduate eager to make a difference in their hometown. These young local coordinators and their library mentors will be trained by WH in humanities and digital media skills. With the library as the project’s home base in each community, the Community Powered team will collaborate with local nonprofit organizations, businesses, and citizens to unearth and tell stories of their communities, using those stories to create a locally meaningful project.

“This work is ‘community powered,’” says Chrissy Widmayer, Community Powered co-director, “because it will harness the energy, inspiration, and experiences of each participating community to implement sustainable projects that matter. By being community powered, these projects will tell the community’s stories the way the community wants to tell them, meeting the community’s goals even as residents build connections to one another and inspire hometown pride. Community Powered will provide the community with a humanities toolkit; how they use it will be up to them.”

Community Powered builds upon the work of Arijit Sen, an Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies at UW-Milwaukee, and current co-director of Community Powered. For the past 10 years, Sen has taught students in the Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Field School how to facilitate community storytelling and turn conversations into action. The Field School has produced local projects such as community gardens in vacant lots, pocket parks in unused spaces, and interpretive signs for a public trail. “This project is about listening, reflecting, understanding, and acting. It is about making history and heritage relevant to our lives today,” Sen says.

Community Powered is launching during Wisconsin Humanities’ 50^th Anniversary year. “This project has grown out of Wisconsin Humanities’ decades of experience working with libraries, museums, and other nonprofit organizations throughout Wisconsin to strengthen community life through educational and cultural programs that use the tools of history, culture, and community conversation,” says Dena Wortzel, Wisconsin Humanities Executive Director.

Wisconsin Humanities is an independent nonprofit organization affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). WH’s mission is to strengthen our democracy through educational and cultural programs that build connections and understanding among people of all backgrounds and beliefs throughout the state.

Community Powered is possible thanks to a $150,000 capacity building grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). “Community infrastructure such as parks, libraries, and cultural facilities are essential to creating a sense of place, attracting people, and ensuring communities thrive,” said Missy Hughes, secretary and CEO of WEDC. “As we build our state’s recovery, it’s important to help connect residents with each other and their communities.”

Other financial support has been provided by Wisconsin Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) Act, and a generous private donor. Extra support for Community Powered’s library partners comes from a Department of Public Instruction ARPA grant for building libraries as a center for community resilience.

For more information please contact the Community Powered Co-Directors, Chrissy Widmayer or Arijit Sen or visit the project website.