KCCI Announces Mission Accomplished & 20th Anniversary Plans
KCCI Announces Mission Accomplished
20th Anniversary Plans and Final Months Discussed After Two Decades of Transforming Tallahassee Through Citizen-Led Placemaking Projects
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – October 8, 2026 – After two decades of mobilizing citizens to transform Tallahassee through creative placemaking, the Knight Creative Communities Institute (KCCI) announced today that it will complete its mission and conclude operations during the 20th year in 2027.
“We’ve created a lift beyond what anyone could have imagined,” said Betsy Couch, KCCI Executive Director. “KCCI was created to serve as a catalyst to help Tallahassee attract and retain talent, strengthen residents’ connection to the community, and spur economic vitality through placemaking, and we can proudly say: Mission Accomplished. Tallahassee has never been more cool and interesting because hundreds of Catalysts volunteered their time and talents to help the community become its best version.”
KCCI has trained and mobilized more than 300 volunteer Community Catalysts, who have completed more than 40 major projects across Leon County that have generated an estimated $1 billion in trackable economic impact while helping create and strengthen some of the community’s most recognizable places and projects.
A few examples include:
- Gaines Street
- Sustainable Tallahassee
- Discovery play area & The Amphitheatre in Cascades Park
- The TLH Sculpture
- Art of the Box artistic boxes all around town showcasing local talent
- Leon County’s 1st Musical Park: Red Hills Rhythm at Coal Chute Pond
- The Stacks, Leon County’s largest outdoor public mural system
- Market District Road Map to Success
- Midtown’s Action Plan & 5th Avenue Plaza
- Frenchtown Farmer’s Market
- Educational Bicycle Parks
- Artistic Book Benches, Fully Booked and Wander & Wonder Trails by libraries
- School spirit murals, and much more
Founded in 2007 with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, KCCI began as an initiative expected to last less than a few years ultimately continued for two decades, fueled by results, the leadership of KCCI’s leadership and volunteer “Community Catalysts,” and financial support from Tallahassee’s local businesses and grant organizations. For comparison, Knight launched two carbon-copy programs in Charlotte and Duluth-Superior, and both dissolved within the first three years of operations. Tallahassee’s program was the only one that continued to see success year-after-year.
“When we started KCCI in 2007, we were testing a simple idea: give people who love their community an opportunity to shape its future, and remarkable things can happen,” said Mike Pate, founder of KCCI. “What those first Catalysts started became something far bigger than an organization. Twenty years later, you can drive through Tallahassee and see their ideas, experience the places they helped create and meet people see the positive changes that citizens can accomplish. That’s the legacy I’m most proud of.”
The philosophy behind KCCI’s work is supported by research. The Knight Foundation/Gallup Soul of the Community study found a strong relationship between residents’ emotional attachment to their communities and economic growth. Communities with the highest levels of resident attachment experienced 6.9% GDP growth, compared with just 0.3% growth among communities with the lowest attachment.
“KCCI helped demonstrate that placemaking isn’t simply about making a community look better—it’s an economic development strategy,” said Ed Murray, President NAI TALCOR and a KCCI Community Catalyst. “When people feel connected to where they live, they stay, invest, participate and tell others why this is a great place to be. KCCI’s work helped create that sense of place while catalyzing investment and economic activity throughout our community.”
At the heart of KCCI’s model are its Community Catalysts—residents from different professions, backgrounds and stages of life who volunteer their expertise to identify opportunities and turn ideas into tangible community improvements.
“Being part of KCCI deepened my relationship with and appreciation for Tallahassee while connecting me with people I never would have met otherwise—people who became close friends and mentors,” said Stacey Getz, a 2007 KCCI Community Catalyst. “My husband and I have had opportunities to move elsewhere, we have chosen to stay here to raise our family.”
None of the projects or KCCI Community Catalyst teams would have been possible without the local entities that financially supported the organization and its Community Catalyst teams for nearly two decades. Their investments gave hundreds of volunteers the resources and the opportunity to bring ambitious ideas to life for the benefit of Tallahassee and Leon County residents. This includes businesses such as: VyStar Credit Union, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, NAI TALCOR, Taproot, Acentria Insurance/McKee Insurance, CWD Dental Group, Tharpe Construction, Target Print & Mail, Hartsfield Construction and Windwood Communications; and the Universities: Florida State University and Florida A & M University; and support from individuals like Marjorie Turnbull, Vicki Weber & David Powell, Serena & Jon Moyle and Nolia & Bill Brandt; and grant organizations such as Knight Foundation and Community Foundation of North Florida.
“What made KCCI special from the beginning was the people,” said Laurie Hartsfield Burleson, KCCI’s first Executive Director. “We united citizens who loved Tallahassee, believed in its potential, and were willing to roll up their sleeves to make things happen.”
During its 20th and final year, KCCI will focus to celebrate the past work of the KCCI Community Catalysts and will create “The Catalyst Playbook — A Guide to Citizen-Led Placemaking and Economic Vitality” to enable other businesses and communities to replicate KCCI’s successful model, past projects and ideas. KCCI will also develop a guide that neighborhoods and individuals can use to mobilize residents, strengthen their sense of place and spark economic vitality. KCCI will not recruit another traditional Community Catalyst class. Instead during this final year, former KCCI Community Catalysts or donors can volunteer to be part of the 20th anniversary planning team.
“KCCI’s work may be concluding officially as an organization next year, yet the model can continue on,” said Couch. “The final act is to package what Tallahassee taught us and pass it forward so others can create positive, transformative change of their own.”
