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The Catalyst Role

What is a Community Catalyst? 

KCCI Community Catalysts are change agents. They make a volunteer commitment to educate, engage and enable fellow citizens to build a more authentic, sustainable and prosperous community. Click the button below to learn more about the upcoming project, and please also join our mailing list to follow our activities.

Learn more about the current project

Each Catalyst will:

  1. Develop partnerships and relationships to accomplish a sense of place project within a year
  2. Participate in a 2-day training where they study creative community concepts, the local economy, and global trends in economic prosperity and learn more about the project
  3. Learn about place-based community strategies and economic principles related to placemaking
  4. Be team players
  5. Be visionaries
  6. Devote on average 2 to 3 hours a week through the 12 month period

Responsibilities and Duties include:

  • Prepare for the year
    • Study readings and current practices
    • Talk with other community members about the region and its strengths, resources and needs
    • Analyze recent economic data
    • Participate fully in the team teaching and workshop to develop a collective vision
  • Develop the initiative
    • Attend team meetings
    • Be an active and constructive team member
  • Coordinate efforts
    • Maintain easy information flow with the other Catalysts and initiatives
    • Attend KCCI team meetings
    • Link all public communications to KCCI overall
    • Meet regularly with KCCI
    • Be available to contribute to KCCI success in flexible ways
  • Engage your community
    • Practice and promote the KCCI and Creative Community principles, and build them into your initiative work
    • Share your analysis and understanding of the local and regional economy
    • Be a spokesperson for the Catalysts’ vision and initiatives
    • Leverage and access available resources
    • Embrace and practice the concept that every Catalyst’s job is to teach, learn, and act upon their initiative’s and KCCI’s visions
    • Develop and maintain an inclusionary process:
      • Resist promoting an agenda of only a select few: the KCCI process is not based on special interests of particular individuals
      • Promote the vision and interests of KCCI and your initiative through community participation: constantly invite and recruit individuals who are not original Catalysts to participate in your initiative
      • Build consensus and cohesive action
      • Demonstrate that Catalysts are stewards and activists for a community that attracts creative, involved, successful, productive and effective people
      • Structure your initiative in such a way as to assure diversity and widespread participation
    • Address how the overarching mission and goals of your initiative can support and encourage all of your efforts by the end of the KCCI year:
      • If appropriate, find ways to make room for add-on activities that have been brought to you by the community as you work on your initiative
      • Be open to the idea that some parts of your initiative or group may want or need to be stand-alone activities that get your encouragement and support
      • Find and develop methods to 1) create win-win situations, and 2) collaborate and cooperate with the broader community
    • Develop plans to assure the continuity of your initiative’s efforts after the twelve month period: your legacy should hold open the doors for others to help carry forward the efforts of your initiative
    • Allow yourself enough time to put the structures in place to sustain your efforts and to build on them