Exploring Creativity
Becoming creative is a process of exploring feelings and interests outside of the constraints of societies box. Creativity happens when the mind is given permission to explore. This section on exploring could also be called expressions. My explorations into creativity comes out in the forms of poetry, photography, and wild ideas. Exploring can release entirely new concepts that may or may not be marketable depending on society and the boxes in which it lives. However, exploring may be called research and involve research. It can be fun and may produce the next greatest invention, medicine, home, way of life, way of owning property, or investing. Non-creative thinking is common in government is often called best practices. This is a process of copying what seems to work for a given community, but may not work for every community. Communities are different and that is why we sometimes choose to live in certain communities. Best practices may be best financially for the government but not beneficial to the people. People make communities and not governments.
We have generally accepted E=MC squared and a boundary or box has been set. We are expected to confine our thoughts to that box.
Let’s assume that mass or matter cannot be created or destroyed but that it is constant. I ask, what happens to fat when a person dies? Does it attach itself to another person? If more babies are born than people die, would there be less fat waiting to attack a person? We are
told that atomic energy or radiation has a half life and eventually disappears. Where does it go? What about forever chemicals? How long is forever and is it possible to remove them from a site? To where?
We begin to grow thought boundaries, or boxes, and they become restrictive to our thought.
Perhaps we are drawing or painting and the instructor or council doesn’t like our creation because it doesn’t fit their box. Should the creation be given a poor grade? Do we therefore restrict our future effort in that area and say, “Im not an artist”?
Who created the box that the mind is in? Did the hindering of creativity start with the baby crib? Did it start by teaching someone to be right handed even though they are actually left handed?
Therefore, be free of boxes. Allow yourself to play in the sand without the box.
Be a sunburst! Allow your mind to release brilliance!
The Community Vitality Model graphically shows the elements and their necessary relationship to establish and maintain a healthy community, including habitat, community, social network, and inner self. The slides are:
- “Family to Family” demonstrates the need for stable families to have stable communities.
- “Community Collaboration Model” demonstrates the need for a community to function with all its parts like a balanced wheel.
- "Community Vitality Cell" is a microscopic look at how the community is a living and balanced organism like a body cell and must protect itself to stay well.
- “Agency Box Cartoon” is asking if electronic communication really creates community transparency and better service.
The “Community Vitality Model” is not based on scientific theory, but is Bob Graham’s creative explanation of how a community becomes healthy and stays healthy. It is based on his 46 years of experience in community planning, including 16 years as chair of the Freeborn County Family Services Collaborative and co-chair of the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project in Albert Lea, Minnesota, in 2009, which was sponsored by the United Health Foundation.
This theoretical concept could be researched and tested.
Empowering Communities Through Innovation
Family-to-Family Model
The family-to-family model recognizes the need for cultural change in the health of families. We are now at a time when more than 50% of families, including families with newborns, are single-parent families. We also have a very mobile society, and families are generally no longer closely connected geographically, so parents and grandparents are not as available to help families become positively established. There is also the problem of generational family failure. This is seen in a high family separation rate, children not ready for Kindergarten or ready to learn, generations repeatedly in assisted housing with no apparent social improvement, student failure, and prisons being planned based on the lack of achievement of children in the third grade.
The logo or model represents the Freeborn County Family Services Collaborative grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Minnesota through the “Growing UP Healthy Kids and Communities” program. The grant application was prepared by Bob Graham, and a planning grant was awarded, followed by an implementation grant. The Implementation Grant is in its first year, and two candidates have been selected from successful “Healthy Families” parents to be family-to-family ambassadors. The ambassadors will help parents with newborns make the needed connections with services and other families to a point where the child successfully reaches entrance into Kindergarten and is ready to learn. The vision is that in another generation, we will see more stable and healthier families as the base for healthier and more prosperous communities.
The Healthy Families Program is operated by the Freeborn County Department of Public Health and is able to select at-risk families to assist from birth until the child reaches Kindergarten.
Community Collaboration Model
The “Community Collaboration Model” demonstrates the institutions required to collaborate in order to have community stability and positive health and growth. Think of this model as a wheel with spokes from the axle to the rim. The axel is represented by the City Council because it is elected by “we the people” and has the responsibility for the “health, safety, and welfare” of the community as is generally stated in ordinances, especially the zoning ordinance. The spokes from the axel connect to the rim through the institutions of the community and ensure equal rotation of the collaboration wheel. The institutions are the public, business, focus groups (political parties, unions, parent-teacher organizations), industry and the employment base, education to build ongoing rational thought, medical promotion of wellness and treating illness, other groups such as service clubs, and various staff including public safety, community development, management, and support services.
All of the institutions must work collaboratively to maintain community stability, transparency, and encourage creativity and vision in support of future generations.
City councils change, but the axel is permanent. Institutions change, but they must remain equal collaborators. If the institutions (connecting points for the spokes to the wheel) become too strong or too weak, the wheel does not run straight, and it wears on the community, which begins to lose vision and stability. It is the responsibility of the other institutions and city council (the collaborators) to bring the wheel back into alignment for a smooth-running community with positive momentum for the future.
From a quotation by Bob Graham: People with “I” trouble often have poor vision. Thus, our Constitution begins; “We the People.”
Community Vitality Cell
The “Community Vitality Cell” represents The Healthy Community. If one takes the Community Collaboration Model and looks at it under the microscope, the elements of a healthy community appear as in a body cell.
Again, the city council is at the center of the cell in the role of the DNA. The council, elected by “we the people” is responsible for holding the fluidic cell in its form by maintaining balance among the cell’s individual parts so that the cell stays healthy, and the people experience a healthy environment, livable habitat, social connections and harmony, and can freely express inner self. The community can be healthy and prosperous.
A close look at the cell nodes reveals some new elements to help the cellular fluid stay together. The council is assisted by teams, boards, and commissions. Community ambassadors reach out to connect with “we the people” and encourage the community to adopt living better and longer. The connecting institutions continue to be in balance, and individual wellness is achieved through the practice of those traits found among the societies that live the longest and healthiest. These traits are identified by Dan Buettner in The Blue Zones, published by the National Geographic Society in 2008. These traits were practiced during the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project in Albert Lea, MN, in 2009. This project was sponsored by the United Health Foundation. These traits are eating wisely (eating 80% of what you think you need), having a plant slant and wine at 5:00 (and being involved in a happy hour or a time of social relaxation). The right outlook includes knowing your life purpose and downshifting. Exercise by moving naturally and connecting with the right tribe. These traits are referred to as the “power of 9”. These are some of the traits that the Family to Family Ambassador program hopes to instill in families as they become healthier.
Winona State University, Winona, MN, has also identified traits that are referred to as the seven dimensions or pillars of wellness, and they include physical, intellectual, spiritual, emotional, environmental, social, and occupational. These traits keep the individual and family in balance, and when practiced by the community, there is evidence that the community and future generations are healthier. Evidence of community change may be found on the Blue Zones website.
As long as everything remains in balance in the community vitality cell, the community can continue to move toward greater health and well-being. However, as is the case in the body, a free radical may enter the cell and disturb the balance. It may attack the different institutions and disrupt the Power 9 or the Pillars, causing stress and causing a breakdown in the system. These free radicals are often the “I” people, the bullies of the community, and those who choose self-fulfillment over community welfare. If the free radicals are permitted to continue, the community will lose momentum and fail to move forward toward greater health and prosperity.
It is the role of the DNA (city council), elected by “we the people,” to control the free radicals. All the other elements within the cell need to equally increase pressure on the DNA to remove the free radical from a power position. There are many programs that have failed because the city council gave its responsibility to an institution directed by an individual who became a free radical, and the community missed a significant opportunity to grow in health and prosperity.
The environment around the cell may also become poisoned, and the cell may adapt to the environment and be comfortable within the paradigm shift called the “new normal.” A change agent may be required to heal the cell, and this may require changing the environment. A change agent is not a “free radical” and works to change the environment so that healing can take place and the cell can thrive within a healthy environment.
Slavery within the U.S. is an example of a poisoned environment that resulted in a paradigm that was considered normal. However, there were those within the environment who didn’t consider this a normal way of life. It wasn’t normal to have “we the people” and “you are not the people”**. This inequality was destructive to the health of the cell, and the body eventually went to war with itself. A change agent, President Lincoln, changed laws as did the war; however, in eliminating slavery as a legal act, the inequality continued, and “we the people” continued to not recognize and accept “you are not the people.”
People such as Martin Luther King Jr. were not “free radicals,” but change agents who helped to change the environment, and the cell body is slowly healing. Change agents work on adjusting and healing the environment so that the DNA and elements within the cell can adjust. “Free radicals” attack the elements within the cell and cause breakdown.
In Albert Lea, MN, the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project, sponsored by the United Health Foundation, was a change agent. The environment was changed through positive engagement and reinforcement, resulting in “We the People” being engaged in an environmental change paradigm. Nearly 20% of the adult population were fully engaged and realized positive health changes. This personal experience caused other elements of the cell to adjust to the environmental change and become more focused on the potential paradigm shift toward a healthy attitude, helping to stabilize the positive environmental change.
It is the responsibility of all the elements of the cell and specifically the DNA, to evaluate all environmental change at its very early appearance to determine if the change is beneficial to the overall health, safety, and welfare of the community or if it may be a threat to long term life and stability.
As planners, our role is to be an evaluator and advisor to the DNA and cell. We are trained to be observers and predictors, and need to take an assertive position in our advisory role.
***You are not the people is a term coined by Bob Graham to represent the disenfranchised but legal citizens living in a state of inequality.
Agency Box Cartoon
The buzzwords today are transparency and open communication. In name, these are good concepts, but are the current practices as transparent and family-friendly as agencies assume? Agencies are moving rapidly toward electronic communication through the web, Facebook, tweets, and select channels on television. There is a definite trend for families to have internet access and cellular connections so that from the agency’s position, electronic communication is very transparent.
The assumption is that electronic agency communications to the public will be viewed and that the public will seek them out. If viewed, are they simple and clear enough for the general public to understand? If an agency is contacted via email, Facebook, or text, is there someone responsible for directing the communication to the right department, and how often during the day does this happen? Does the query get answered to the requestor’s satisfaction, or is more communication required? How often do you look at a website when there is not even a telephone number? There is often a place at the bottom of the message indicating an option to contact them. Does this process become frustrating, and does the requestor (busy family or individual) receive an adequate answer? If there is a telephone number, does anyone answer, or does it go directly to voice mail? How often is voice mail responded to? It often says that the recipient is out of the office. Is this true, or do they just not answer the phone? I am aware of all the gimmicks after working in government for 46 years. It often became difficult to communicate between offices and department heads, with the best option being to go to their office and find them working. You could see them with an appointment. It reminds me of the British comedy “Are You Being Served,” in which they ask, “Are you free?” and the clerk is never busy.
Then what happens once you connect and have access to the specific agency representative who may be able to help with your request? Maybe you will find that you need another representative, and you will start the process over again, even though the representatives are within the same department. Do you have absolutely everything required for the representative to help you, or do they send you away to check another box on a form? Do they really help you find the answers that you need, such as your lot size, which they usually have available, or do they require you to spend money for a survey so that they can help you? What if you don’t know where to find the information or just aren’t adept at filling out forms? Are you then in an endless circle with you, or is your family situation deteriorating? An example is the financial worker in the welfare system. Some people need welfare assistance, and many of us have family members who have had to use it. None of us are exempt, and we are still good people. Are we treated as people or “you are not the people,” and are we just a number and just an appointment? You finally get your appointment (maybe after a month), but something is missing. You are sent home to get the information and can have another appointment in another month. Sorry, our people are just too busy to help everyone with their individual needs. So, are you, “we the people,” being served by those elected to represent all of us?
The cartoon represents constituents and families trying to get into the agency box through the policies adopted by the officials to be helped by the sad-faced professionals and assistants tied up by the policies and practices and transparent communication systems. Individuals who go to four or more years of college in the areas of public service often claim that they have been taking their courses of education in order to help people. They are sad-faced because they aren’t really doing what they were seriously trained for, and they soon talk about how soon they can retire. Retire from what, from helping people or from frustrating jobs filled with policy and locked into the inability to actually serve people? Eventually, this becomes a paradigm and a new normal. It is simply the way that business is done in the public sector. Now, to help with this transparency, the individual has been removed and replaced by electronic robotics. They are now shielded from helping, which was their original goal at graduation. Oh, oh, here comes 1984.
The cartoon shows a paradigm shift in which agency representatives go out to reach the public, “we the people,” and they become happy-faced. Officials feel they are really serving the public because the constituents are happy. Is this realistic and achievable in this electronic world?
Quotes
People with "I" trouble often have poor vision, thus our constitution begins, "We the People."
Play frees the mind of many arrangements.