Public Square blessing; Fort Scott again achieves accreditation from organization that brings all sectors of the community together.
For the second time in as many attempts, the Fort Scott Community Visioning Committee has been awarded Public Square Community accreditation.
Public Square accreditation began in 2007 as a way validate and market high-performing communities to potential residents, businesses, investors and visitors. Since then, Fort Scott has been involved through the Community Visioning Committee and Committee Co-convener Clayton Tatro said the announcement marks the second time the group has received the distinction. Accreditation was first won in 2009.
The Public Square Communities organization was created to help get all four "corners of the square" working together toward "rebuilding the public square." The four corners include government, education, health and human services and business and industry.
"For us, Public Square has kind of provided a vehicle for not only organizing activities but also communicating the different visioning projects," Tatro said. "It's kind of allowed a central framework around which the various action teams can report and can communicate their progress."
Accreditation requires that all four sectors share leadership and funding for managing their development efforts. To be eligible to apply for accreditation, a community must have a two-year track record of involving citizens in creating and implementing their community's vision. They must renew their vision and goals every two years, have at least three citizen teams implementing goals at all times, hold an annual regional conversation with a neighboring community, provide leadership for the annual Communities Conference and pay an annual fee of $1,500 to $4,000, depending on population.
The fee must come from at least three of the four public square sectors.
Earning accreditation, Tatro said, gives the Community Visioning Committee a sense that community visioning really does work.
"I think it's really validation that the activities that we are engaging in within community visioning are effective, that they are making an impact across the community," Tatro said. "I think it's recognition that community visioning is working.
"I think that accreditation provides some credibility and validation for our community development activities and actions."
In Fort Scott, Tatro said, the Community Visioning Committee serves as a facilitator for the four local action teams: Developing the Riverfront as an Asset, Community Health and Wellness Team, the Good Neighbor Action Team and the Youth Activities Team. In the last five years, the community has seen the benefits of the action teams and tangible products, including Heritage Park, the Good Neighbor Blitz, the Fort Scott/Bourbon County Riverfront Authority and Pennies for the (Ellis) Park.
"I think it's kind of hard to understand community visioning in Fort Scott unless and until you talk about the various action teams," Tatro said.
All of the action teams have long-term goals, the most recent of which was passage of the half-cent sales tax to fund a new swimming pool and addition to Buck Run Community Center by the Health and Wellness Team, Tatro said. But the teams still have a lot to do.
"The one thing that we've figured out with community visioning is that it is a process," he said. "Really the next step for us is continuing the process."
Fort Scott is one of 16 communities currently conducting Public Square community development, and one of seven that has gained accreditation. The others are Chanute, Greeley County, Wallace County, Elk Konnected (six towns in Elk and Greenwood counties), Hodgeman County and Decatur County.