Build Up^ Continues and Evolves

At the August BuildUP^ Tucson & Beyond Meeting, info sharing focused on the outcomes of the UA's GeoSpatial Collaborative Planning Project and its October 2nd Session, the 20th and 21st.  Iris Patten has established a facebook page for continued participation and it can be found at www.facebook.com/geospatialcollaborativeinitiative .  Info was also shared about the continued outreach from the Mindfulness Education Exchange to offer classes to organizations as well as individuals www.mindfuledex.com and on the upcoming Rainbow Build event with Tucson Habitat for Humanity www.habitattucson.org. Updates on the TENWEST Festival was also shared and tickets for that event October 21-28 can be purchased at www.tenwest.com .

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT:  In continued support of the TENWEST Festival, Community Renaissancewill be purchasing four tickets to be raffled at the September BuildUP^ Tucson & Beyond gathering in late September.  The date is still pending for the September gathering, but it will take place at the usual location, La Cocina, 201 N. Court Avenue, 5:30-7 p.m.

BuildUP^ Tucson & Beyond is evolving into a next stage:  Innovate our Neighborhoods.  An initial intro and planning meeting for this collaborative effort is happening on November 12, 10-1p.m. at Tucson Habitat for Humanity.  This creative collaboration will combine resources from UA's GeoSpatial Project, ASU's Happiness Lab, Southwest Fair Housing Council's Opportunity Index, the Santa Monica Well-being Project's Toolkit and other local and national resources to produce new (i.e. innovative) methods of engaging and increasing neighborhood capacity for sustainability, economic opportunity, happiness and well-being.  More information on the content of this meeting will be posted here as well as via the BuildUP Tucson & Beyond googlegroup.  If you want to be part of the google group email me at anitafonte@gmail.com .

Community Renaissance and The Partnership for Engagement and Civic Equity (PECE) is also exploring both online and face-to-face opportunities to join with The Kettering Foundation's National Issues Forum Institutes dialogues on "Making Ends Meet: How Should we Spread Prosperity and Improve Opportunity?" www.nifi.org

Last item is we are at beginning stage of preparation for the 3rd International Day of Happiness, Tucson & Beyond which will be extended to two days in 2017: Sunday, March 19 the the official March 20th global celebration on Monday.  Let us know if your organization wants to be part of this event. www.facebook.com/dohappytoday

As you can see, we have a lot of positive energy flowing from the summer into early autumn, so join us as we work together to make communities Better for Us! www.communityrenaissance.biz

Better for Us: Well-being Science and Community Change

 

Better for Us:  Well-Being Science and Community Change

 

                                             Photo anita c. fonte, Tucson LocalFirstAz

My business, Community Renaissance, has been a member of LocalFirstAz for the past three years. Why?  Because for every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $73 remains in the local economy and $27 leaves. Compare that impact with the other choice:  for every $100 spent on a non-locally owned business, $43 remains in the local economy and $57 leaves. (from www.localfirstaz.com/learn).

In the most recent Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index (2014), Arizona ranked 35 out of the 50 states for overall financial well-being, with indicators that include money spent on food and healthcare http://www.well-beingindex.com .  Financial well-being, also referred to as economic opportunity, is only one of the six measurement dimensions in the Santa Monica California Well-being project http://wellbeing.smgov.net/projectresources .   

Awarded 1 million dollars by the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge, the City of Santa Monica brought in the Rand Corporation, the U.K-based research institute New Economics Foundation (nef) and additional 18 experts from other research groups and universities to: 

·       develop tools to measure their city’s well-being, and

·       produce a transferability guide for other cities, such as Tucson, to use.   

The other five areas measured in the Santa Monica data were: community, place, learning, health and outlook, i.e. how individuals feel about their lives and day-to-day emotions.  

The overall purpose of the Santa Monica Project and other resources that are emerging as part of the field of Well-being Science is to provide cities (regions, states and countries) “with targeted information to act on the causes and conditions which improve quality of life.” Source: Summary Findings from the Local Wellbeing Index, April 2015, The Wellbeing Project. 

One interesting finding from the Santa Monica Project is displayed in this image: 

                                      

 

In Tucson, the University of Arizona’s MAP Dashboard found that over 1 in 3 share this concern http://mapazdashboard.arizona.edu . 

Related to this finding: The HUD designated Southwest Fair Housing Council--one of the partners with Community Renaissance’s program, The Partnership for Equity and Civic Engagement (PECE) and Do Happy Today--is conducting its first phase of an Opportunity Map with assistance from University of Arizona students in Geography.  This first phase connects affordability and employment to segregated housing patterns in Pima County http://www.swfhc.com .  

Other university faculty at the University of Arizona, Brian Meyer, and, Scott Cloutier, at Arizona State University are studying community resiliency (Meyer) and Sustainable Neighborhoods for Happiness (Cloutier).  Also, local efforts such as Healthy Pima and Tucson Mayor Rothschild’s Commission on Poverty (2014) and Commission on Food Security, Heritage and Economy (2015) are part of the Well-being Science research leaning our region forward to positive community change http://healthypima.org http://www.mayorrothschild.com/initiatives . 

                                                                              


                

                             
           

“Wellbeing science is valuable for three reasons.  First, it helps us focus on the things that make the most difference in people’s lives….  Second, it helps us manage the trade-offs between different objectives….  And third, wellbeing science can help in identifying positive feedback loops and the interventions that encourage them…. http://wellbeing.smgov.net/projectresources