The Bottom-Up Revolution

Skyler Yost — Ecosystem Builder for the city of York, PA — shares how you can foster entrepreneurship in your community, including how to assess the existing resources in your community, how to create an ecosystem in which entrepreneurs are supporting one another, and most important, how fostering an entrepreneurship in your community makes our cities and towns stronger. 

Ryan Short — CEO of CivicBrand — shares how you can find your community’s true essence, including how to engage with your community to ensure the creation of your brand is a grassroots effort, how to ensure your brand actually aligns with what your community offers, and how finding your community’s true essence makes your city or town stronger.

Kea Wilson — Communications Manager at Strong Towns — discusses what her time as a bookseller at Left Bank Books in the St. Louis taught her about making local businesses a third place, including what building a third place actually looks like, how third places are more economically resilient, and how you can make your local business a third place.

Dustin Ratcliff – founding member of Walk2Connect – shares how you can connect with your community on foot, including how to motivate your neighbors to form a walking group, how to use your walking group to influence how your city or town is develop, and how connecting with your community on foot makes our cities and towns stronger.

Jordan Katcher – Community Development Specialist at the State of Utah with a focus on rural communities – shares how government employees can break down silos in rural communities, including how to choose who to get involved in the process, how to understand the needs of rural communities, and how breaking down silos can make our towns stronger. 

In this episode, Jacob chats with three local leaders in open data—Kyle Taylor, Jesse Hamner, and Habib—share how open data works, including how you can use open data to act on your ideas, how you can encourage your elected officials to adopt open data policies, and how open data can make your city or town stronger.

Latoya Wilson — founder of the Rebuild Workforce Consultancy — shares how you can invest in the youth in your community, including how to understand the learning landscape for youth, how to create programs that are beneficial for students, and how to make your investments last throughout a student’s time in primary school and beyond.

Jenna Jarvis – environmental engineer out of St. Louis, Strong Towns member, and winner of our Why I Joined Strong Towns fall member drive contest – discusses how to navigate your neighborhood-boosting ideas and decide what to do first, including how to start small, how to get your peers involved, and how to keep the momentum going as you plan new actions.

Caroline Dobbins Hurteau—staff member at the Albion Reinvestment Corporation—shares how you can start a successful pop-up shop, including how to pitch the idea to your downtown organizations, how to find merchants, and, most important, how to make it an incremental yet lasting success for your city or town. 

Jordan Deffenbaugh — primary organizer of Local Conversation Strong Towns Sioux Falls — shares how you can spread the Strong Towns message locally, including how to spread the vision among your neighbors, how to give your neighbors a sense of ownership in the process, and, most important, how to get into the nitty-gritty of making your city or town stronger.