COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT and ENGAGEMENT
Cultural initiatives drive community development by engaging people in diverse cultural activities. These initiatives encompass events, workshops, and projects that celebrate heritage, arts, and traditions, fostering inclusivity and a sense of belonging. By bringing people together, these initiatives strengthen social bonds, encourage dialogue, and empower communities to thrive through shared experiences, knowledge exchange, and collaborative efforts, ultimately enriching the cultural fabric of society.
Gloucester’s Comprehensive Plan
GCI has long been focused on creating an environment in which the public can engage in informed discussions on a wide range of diverse issues within the Gloucester community. So when the City launched a comprehensive planning initiative to chart a Comprehensive Master Plan, a Vision for the next ten years, and to develop a plan of strategies and actions to actualize that Vision, GCI eagerly volunteered to participate in this effort. The programs below are a part of our effort.
Community Engagement
Your Visioning Input
The City of Gloucester has released a draft Vision 2023 based on prior public input. GCI is taking this opportunity to convene two in-person meetings for arts and cultural leaders to review the draft and discuss the new questions. We will also welcome and hear from Gloucester 400+ about lessons they learned about Gloucester from the many events and stories told last year.
Save the Dates!
April 1-May 5 — Community Review Process including ongoing virtual opportunities and an In-Person Community Review Open House @ City Hall on May 4th
Meetings in a Box
The Gloucester Cultural Initiative hosted two meetings during which Gloucester’s arts and culture leaders were asked to provide input into the City’s Comprehensive Plan Initiative. The first meeting was held at the Lanesville Community Center and the second one was a partnership with The Meetinghouse Foundation. During these two meetings, GCI presented to the roundtable groups in attendance questions prepared by the City consultants that focused on the “Culture of Gloucester”.
Gloucester 400+ aimed to honor the past, but also frame the future. These two meetings focused discussion around a vision for the future of Gloucester, but also opened up questions about who we are as a community and what we hope for in order to preserve our historical culture.
As a result, the City’s consultants released a draft synthesis of Vision 2023 that incorporates around our suggestions for investments in fishing and artisan industries, neighborhood businesses, cultural activities, and community meeting places that support socio-economic diversity in the community.
“Culture a concern as Gloucester looks to future”
Gail McCarthy, Gloucester Daily Times, Jan. 8, 2024
What Now Gloucester
An intergenerational collaboration
This lively interactive program brought some of our book publication, “Gloucester Encounter’s” authors together with a group of students to exchange questions and views on our future in Gloucester.
The event took place on October 19, 2023, at the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center in collaboration with the Gloucester Education Foundation. (GEF). The conversation was facilitated by GEF Executive Director, Emily Siegel and funding assistance was provided by Bruce J. Anderson Foundation.
The group of students and the authors were asked the following questions: What do you think makes Gloucester special that should be preserved for future generations? What gets in the way of making Gloucester special? What’s one change you have seen in Gloucester in the time you’ve lived here? Do you consider it positive, negative, or neutral?
We were surprised that affordable housing was such a primary concern to the participants. GCI will continue to focus on this and other topics, while keenly aware of a number of big issues facing all of us. JM Goldson, City planning consultants have integrated our report on the program into Gloucester’s Community Planning Initiative’s community engagement input.
AUTHOR COMMENTS
““It would be a shame if an inter-generational meeting like this never happened again. I got the feeling that challenges were identified, but how to meet those challenges …?”
“I was stunned by how bright and mature the students were.””
STUDENT COMMENTS
““I liked talking out my ideas with people who were genuinely interested in hearing my thoughts.”
“I felt this forum made me think about aspects of the housing issue in Gloucester that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.””
“Intergenerational forum agrees on hot topic: Gloucester's need and lack of affordable housing”
Gail McCarthy, Gloucester Daily Times, Dec. 20, 2023