
Building on Strong Foundations

Though our Community Powered pilot year ended on May 31, community work by nature does not end. Our CPPC’s year of work in their communities was meant to kickstart new projects, and we found that they laid strong foundations upon which their community partners can build in the future. We hope to support these projects for at least one more year, though we know our relationships with these communities do not have an end date.
Two of our CPPCs proved this immediately by making arrangements to host their final community programs in June rather than May. The goals of these events were to engage community members with familiar places in new ways.
Anthony, the CPPC in Racine, took another shot at engaging people in their LGBTQIA+ Asset Map by hosting a second showcase of the Meaningful Locations exhibit at the LGBT Center of Southeast Wisconsin. They intended the showcase to kick off Pride month and invite LGBTQIA+ Racine residents to share their favorite Pride locations as they celebrated.

On June 17th, Emily, the CPPC in Spooner, hosted a Railroad History Scavenger Hunt at the annual Railroad Heritage Day celebration in Spooner at the Railroad Memories Museum and nearby Railroad Park. The goal of the scavenger hunt was to use technology to engage folks in Spooner with the history of their city in a new way. Emily used photos she took in the town and information about Spooner’s history, that she learned at the library and the Railroad Memories Museum to create an interactive, app-based scavenger hunt on Actionbound. During the event, community members used the app to explore the city’s railroad history by walking from place to place and answering trivia questions. Participants were entered in a raffle for wonderful prizes donated by the Railroad Memories Museum and the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad.


A screenshot of the game that Emily created on Actionbound (Left). The 2023 Railroad Heritage Days hosted at the Railroad Memories Museum (Right).
Though our pilot year officially ended, we look forward to continuing our community partnerships into the future and seeing where these projects take us next!