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  3. Rebecca Sanborn Stone
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Rebecca Sanborn Stone

Inspiring Speaker + Trainer. Community Catalyst.
Community Workshop
Country or state 
United States (Vermont)
Available to 
Global
City 
Bethel
Fee 
Ask for pricing
Languages 
English
Volunteer
Yes

Personal Details

Bio

I'm a creative social innovator, placemaker and network builder. I believe that people have the power to create great communities. And I'm passionate about helping them do it.

I bring more than 15 years of experience helping to catalyze DIY community change. I help people learn to work together to create great places and communities. I also help organizations, towns and social causes engage with their audiences, tell great stories, and have fun while they're doing it.

I'm an interdisciplinary thinker and doer, with a diverse background in communications, land use and community planning, philanthropy and research, training and education, biology and environmental science, and community outreach and social change. I'm equally excited about taking big ideas and applying them in practical ways, and finding small local solutions and helping to scale them up.

I'm a frequent speaker, trainer and facilitator for conferences and organizations in the fields of placemaking, community engagement, resilience and public participation. My specialty is sharing inspiring stories and tools for do-it-yourself change -- easy, cheap projects that any person can take home and start tomorrow. From pop-up universities to public art, tactical urbanism to random acts of kindness, I love helping groups understand the power of working together and making things happen.

Current position (1)

Inspiring Speaker + Trainer. Community Catalyst.

Community Workshop

Degrees (2)
Master of Environmental Science
Yale School of Forestry + Environmental Studies
2004 to 2006
Biology, English & Environmental Studies
Williams College
1997 to 2001

Presentations

Presentations (5)
Civic Infrastructure

Our communities face a host of challenges -- climate change, economic decline, demographic change, natural hazards and more. We know how important strong *physical* infrastructure is to keeping our communities safe -- roads and bridges, power lines, communications networks and more. And luckily, communities increasingly see the value of investing in strong *green* infrastructure to become resilient -- rain gardens and swales, healthy soils and upland forests.

But very few communities are investing in *civic* infrastructure, which may be the most important area of all. Civic infrastructure is the social ties, communication and information channels, and local culture that allow people to work together to solve problems and create a thriving community.

I offer a keynote presentation that introduces the concept of civic infrastructure and shares inspiring examples of how communities are building it. I also offer planning workshops around this critical concept for communities today.

Creative Community Engagement & Communications

Tired of the same old public meetings where no one shows up? Not reaching people through Facebook or newspaper notices? It's time to shake it up.

Today, it's the creative outreach and engagement approaches that matter. I share examples of unusual, surprising and fun ways to spread the word, reach people in the community, gather feedback, and build energy and participation. This talk can range from a short presentation or keynote with an overview of the ideas to a full day workshop for planning an engagement strategy.

We cover a variety of high tech and "high touch" strategies for all ages and demographics, as well as ways to design a strategy that helps reach the right audiences. In full day workshops, we use an approach called community-based social marketing to think strategically about stakeholders, understand who they are and their motivations, and design creative ways to work with them and meet their needs.

DIY Community: A Toolkit for Local Change

Community revitalization work doesn't have to take thousands of dollars and many years. It can start with something as simple as one person and a great idea.

In this fast-paced presentation, I introduce the concepts of placemaking and DIY community change. Then I share a number of customized examples and stories of how people and communities are doing big things with very limited resources. I tailor the examples and content to you and your group -- whether focused on sustainability, education, community development, resilience, creativity or economic development.

I also frequently adapt this talk to be an interactive workshop, where teams or participants work together to design their own DIY projects.

Improv Community

What's the secret to successfully revitalizing communities, building community relationships, and harnessing local creativity? The answers may just come from an unlikely field -- improv comedy.

In this keynote presentation, I introduce my concept of "Improv Community" -- an approach to community engagement and revitalization that is founded on the principles and rules of improv comedy. I share the inspiring story of how the tiny town of Bethel, Vermont used these techniques to rebuild after Tropical Storm Irene and catalyze a wave of downtown reinvestment with no staff, no lengthy plans, and no fundraising campaigns -- just a lot of creativity and bootstrapping.

This unique concept is just as applicable to corporate or non-profit organizations. I also run a more interactive workshop that engages participants in improv activities and teaches them techniques for integrating the "improv community" philosophy into their businesses, organizations, towns or causes.

Strengthening Place, Growing Economies

Traditional economic development strategies include recruiting big businesses, making big investments in infrastructure, and hoping for big growth in jobs.

But small, local, creative approaches are proving to have greater staying power and impact while also improving quality of life and growing local entrepreneurs. This talk highlights communities that are increasingly investing in "placemaking" -- building vibrant, distinctive places where people want to be -- as a way to support local businesses and grow the economy. We cover creative projects and tools that communities can use to start down this path, even with little funding, planning or staff time.

Past talks (16)
Basics of Civic Infrastructure
Vermont Planners' Association Webinar Series
Online
June 10, 2020
Improv Community
League of California Cities Planning Commissioners' Academy
Sacramento, CA
March 4, 2020
MapJam! Creating Crowdsourced Digital Maps (free workshop)
Bethel University (a Pop-Up University in Vermont)
Bethel, VT
March 19, 2020
DIY Community (free workshop)
Placemaking Workshop | AARP Vermont
Middlebury, VT
April 9, 2020
Pop-Up Planning
Pop-ups & Other Fun Planning Experiments | PlanNH
Concord, NH
March 26, 2020
Pop-Up Planning
NNECAPA Annual Conference | Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association
Bretton Woods, NH
November 13, 2019
Building Strong Communities Through Civic Infrastructure
Strengthening Communities for the Future: Community and Economic Development Forum | Vermont League of Cities and Towns
Burke Mountain, VT
March 27, 2019
Creative Placemaking in Rural America
National Livability Conference | AARP
Charlotte, NC
November 13, 2018
Resiliency Games: Engaging Locals in Planning for Resilience
NNECAPA Annual Conference | Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association
Northport, Maine
October 26, 2018
Building Resilience Through Civic Infrastructure
NNECAPA Annual Conference | Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association
Northport, Maine
October 27, 2018
Creative Placemaking: DIY Techniques to Strengthen Public Spaces and Inspire Change
75th Annual Vermont Conference on Recreation
Fairlee, VT
October 11, 2018
DIY Placemaking
Making It Happen: Community Leadership Summit | Vermont Council on Rural Developement
Castleton, VT
October 1, 2018
Small Towns, Vibrant Places: Plenary Session
Building a Sense of Place: An Economic Development Forum | Vermont League of Cities and Towns
Killington, VT
June 14, 2018
Community Engagement for Watershed Resilience
Our Clean Water Future | Leahy Center Environmental Summit
Burlington, VT
March 24, 2017
Bethel University -- A Pop-Up University for the Community, By the Community
Creative Communities Exchange | New England Foundation for the Arts
New London, CT
June 9, 2017
On the Ground: Plenary
Resilient Vermont Conference | Norwich University + Resilient Vermont Network
Northfield, Vermont
May 20, 2016
  • All (3)
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Slides (1)
  • One sheet (1)
  • Press information (1)
This speaker hasn't uploaded any videos yet.
This speaker hasn't uploaded any photos yet.
DIY Placemaking
Building Community, in Bethel and Beyond | The Herald of Randolph

Books & Articles (4)

"Guerrilla Urbanism" Chapter in City 2.0: the Habitat of the Future and How to Get There
TED Books,
2013
Caring About Carbon
Cities of the Future
Pop Goes the Community

Expertise (22)

Leadership
Social & Political
Entertainment & Art
Design
PR & Communications
Community Engagement Placemaking Resilience community building Rural Development Civic Infrastructure Community Planning Grassroots Innovation Community Leadership Community Development Nonprofit Communications Economic Development Social Marketing Public Participation Civic Engagement creative economy Leading Volunteers

Clients

EPA Local Foods, Local Places Program
AARP Vermont
Vermont Emergency Management
Orton Family Foundation
High Meadows Fund
ECHO -- Leahy Center for Lake Champlain
Vermont Arts Council
Radian
Center for a New American Dream
Vermont StoryLab
Norwich University
Shelburne Farms
Institute for Sustainable Communities
League of California Cities

Awards & certifications (2)

Project of the Year | Bethel Better Block
Vermont Planners' Association
2017
Doris Duke Conservation Scholar
Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
2005
Recommendations
Why choose me? 

I inspire people to create great communities -- and give them the tools + stories to make it happen

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