Video Building a Unified Community

Take small steps to pull your town together

Reach more people, rally your town around a common activity
29 minute video to watch on your schedule

It's one of our rural strengths: a strong sense of community.

Or we'd like it to be.
More often, small communities feel like hives of conflict and division. Why can't we all just pull together?

Too often, our different organizations are chasing incompatible goals.
The economic development group is competing with the industrial foundation.
Or the chamber of commerce is fighting the merchants association.
Or developers are against the historical society.

Then there's another layer of us vs. them divisions.
Long time residents vs. newcomers.
The city vs. the college.
People from the nice neighborhood vs. people from the wrong side of the tracks.

Then we get to the big dividers: politics, race, ethnicity and class divisions.

All this Us vs. Them thinking distracts us from the fact that we still have to live in this same town and we need to work on some common goals.

No one tells you how to overcome divisions like these and build a unified sense of community. They just assume it’s something you have naturally as a small town.

We want to help you get started now building a more unified community.

This video will show you practical ways you can build a stronger community. You'll discover simple projects that pull people together.

You'll learn the three parts that turn even your existing projects into community unifiers:

Bring people together from across different groups
Give everyone a small but meaningful role
Create experiences that change people's thinking

You'll learn how to take any project or event and use it to bring your community together.

Convert existing projects to bring people together

How hanging lights in the trees downtown could turn into a town-wide community building experience
A different way to look at a town-wide cleanup contest
Two different ways to do concerts, only one will draw the community together

Improve group coordination

How coffee and calendars can bring organizations together across silos
How a kids' penny fundraiser drew in parents, neighbors and businesses
Help people belong to the community, cut across dividing lines

Arts play a key role

Using a simple arts project to renew community connections after a disaster
Rock hunts, paint by numbers murals, musical events and more

Rally everyone around local small businesses

Update the old "cash mobs" idea to work even in a pandemic
A toilet paper "shop local" project that wipes out divisions

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SaveYour.Town's Becky McCray and Deb Brown share their real world experience.

We get small towns.

We see across the usual group boundaries because of our life experiences with race and ethnic groups, class and income divisions, politics and policy making.

Our Idea Friendly Method comes from that deep understanding of the value of every single person.

Deb and Becky on the carousel in Faulkton, South Dakota. Shared experiences build connections.

boy have I learned a thing or 20!!

I have to be honest...I was a Chamber Director for 12 years and now work as a Community Development Director in a small rural County and I wasn't sure what two women about my age could teach me about Community Development....well boy have I learned a thing or 20!!

I just want to say thank you for sharing all your great ideas and expertise...it's absolutely wonderful and very real.

Shelly Hansel, Kansas

Academics call it "bridging social capital."

We call it Gathering Your Crowd. All it really means is connecting people across divisions.

Research says it's good for communities.

Bringing together people who don't usually connect can mean exchanging information and ideas, creating innovative solutions together, Social Capital R&T said.
This kind of contact with people different from you gives you a chance to understand them, taking the first steps to becoming more tolerant of differences.

But it doesn't come naturally to small towns.

Rural communities more often have strong connections between people who are alike (bonding social capital) but weaker connections between people who are different (bridging social capital).

What that means for you: You have to work at building a strong connected community. Here's how.

You create opportunity to build bridging social capital any time someone interacts with strangers. This can happen when attending events or working on projects together, the kind of events and projects you'll learn about in this video.

You've heard us say it before:

Community happens when people talk to each other.

You'll learn exactly how to use events and projects to build bridges and create a more unified community.

You'll get a 29 minute video you can watch on your own or share with others in your community.

Build a stronger community for a more resilient future

Use small but meaningful roles to get the best from everyone
Reach across divisions to bring people together
Use the power of experiences to change attitudes, beliefs and actions

This is not another tiresome live webinar

Short, to the point and interactive video
Watch instantly on your schedule: anytime, on demand, starting now
Recorded so you can pause, stop, rewind or watch again immediately

Here's a quick sample

Deb Brown talks you through her own experience of what she used to think qualified as building community, and how you can multiply the benefits of even a small project.

Community Building video with Deb Brown and Becky McCray

29 minute video
Available immediately - no waiting

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Will this video be recorded so I can watch later?

Yes, the video is recorded, and you'll be able to watch it immediately as soon as you complete your purchase. You are welcome to watch the video more than once, start and stop, or go back and watch again. You're not limited to watching from a single computer or with just one group.

What are your videos like? Will there be slides?

Not like the usual webinar! You get a short, straight to the point video you can watch anytime on demand. You see our faces, and we connect with you personally. There are no boring slides, and we focus on real-world examples, not theoreticals.

What if I have questions?

You can ask questions two ways: in the comment box or via email. We always answer you personally. You can also share stories or examples you've seen. That helps everyone!

Will the video play on my computer? Or on my phone?

Either one! If you can watch a YouTube video, you can watch this video. That means you can use any device, any screen that can load a web page for you to login. Any PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android phone or tablet, smart TV or TV with a streaming box or stick should work.
You don't need blazing fast internet.

How long is the video?

The video runs around 29 minutes. For a virtual watch party, schedule 40-50 minutes. You'll want that extra time to discuss what you watched and to network and talk with each other.

Can I share the video with other people?

Yes! Once you’re registered, you can schedule more than one viewing so you reach as many people as possible. We encourage you to watch on your own or set up a virtual watch party.

Who should I invite?

Your friends who love to do things with you
Visionaries like yourself
Positive thinkers and doers
Leaders and officials
Downtown associations, Main Streets, chambers
Artists and arts organizations
Community foundations
Elected officials from your local municipalities, counties or tribes
People who care about your town

What people say about SaveYour.Town videos

This video stimulated lots of note-taking and conversation between the business owners gathered at my house. Deb and Becky gave us some new ideas and several excellent examples of known models. I think some of us are thinking of pivoting our summer’s plans after participating in Wednesday’s event. Thanks for a well-thought out presentation!

Jonya Pacey, Minnesota

What a TERRIFIC marketing Video. I had 20 businesses show up to watch and they all left with new ideas and an excitement to get back and start implementing! I’ve already had 5 businesses reach out in less than 2 hours after it ended, that are already putting your ideas into action.

Mandy Walsh, City of Lampasas, Texas

There are always great take-aways from the videos that can be put into place immediately. One of my favorites is changing your store's evening vibe (different music, lighting, etc.) because evening shoppers are not the same as day time shoppers.

Diane Moore, Wheaton, Illinois

Community experiences heal community divisions by helping us behave in new ways and develop new attitudes and values.

When we act more like we're connected members of the community, we start to see ourselves as more truly members of the community.

Each of these projects we talk about in this video directly benefited the communities, whether it was money raised for the pool, or cleaner yards, or better coordination between different groups.

Each project also indirectly benefited the community by making it stronger. They created experiences that brought people together from across different groups to each play a meaningful role.

Together, these experiences:

Provided common ground,
Built local pride and ownership,
Proved that everyone can help save your town,
Engendered a sense of community responsibility, and
Put deposits in the social capital bank account depleted by conflict.

You build a stronger community through experiences that bring people together from across different groups to each play a meaningful role.

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