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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. Read about the Catalyst role below, or learn more about the upcoming 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