Something remarkable is happening in central Wisconsin. Thousands of people spanning political ideologies, races, ethnicities, incomes, and ages are working to create a place where all residents feel they belong and can thrive.
This isn’t a utopian dream, but the work of Imagine Fox Cities, a project started in 2018 by a small group of local volunteers who see themselves and others as shared stewards of the community known as the Fox Cities. It began when a few longtime Fox City leaders, concerned about the direction the area was headed, got together and asked a seemingly simple question: “How can we ensure that the Fox Cities is a great place to live now and for generations to come?”
Like many places in the country, the Fox Cities was facing challenges stemming from changing demographics and economic instability. The area’s approximately 200,000 residents live in 19 cities, towns, and villages along the Fox River between Green Bay and Milwaukee. It was once home to the nation’s largest paper-mill industry, but by the early 2000s, that business had sharply declined, leaving an economic void.
At the same time, the Fox Cities experienced rapid diversification and segregation. Two decades ago, it was nearly all white, but today most newly arriving families are Black and Hispanic. Children of color currently constitute 35 percent of the school population, and many don’t feel accepted by their peers.
Community leaders knew something needed to be done. With the help of local philanthropies, including the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region and United Way Fox Cities, as well as civic-minded businesses and facilitators at the Community Initiatives Network, their informal conversations quickly turned into a full-fledged organizing effort. Imagine Fox Cities was born.
Within a few months, a diverse cross section of residents, along with leaders of businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, were asking questions about what it would take to create a community where every resident felt like they were valued and could flourish.
At the heart of Imagine Fox Cities is a group of residents known as community stewards. These are people and organizations who exist in every city and town in America: The health worker who organizes winter-coat drives. The teacher who advocates for trans and nonbinary students. And the local policy maker who pushes for changes in housing regulations that produce better, healthier living conditions.
“Stewards aim to make good on American ideals of democracy and community self-reliance by pursuing common-sense solutions to health, economic, environmental, and social challenges,” wrote the journalist and author Jay Walljasper. Crucially, they understand the value of solving problems through cooperation and coordination with those whose experiences and perspectives may differ from their own.
Ditching Old-Style Philanthropy
At a time when the United States is experiencing an epidemic of despair about the present and foreboding about the future, Imagine Fox Cities offers a practical antidote. Its work, and similar efforts in places such as Palm Beach County, Fla., and Washtenaw County, Mich., show why philanthropic investments will go much further if they identify and support the people working together to create healthy and hopeful communities instead of relying on old-style philanthropy that pinpoints a problem and identifies a singular solution.
The Rippel Foundation, where I work, decided 15 years ago to concentrate exclusively on strengthening the efforts of community stewards such as those in the Fox Cities. After more than 50 years as a grant maker to health organizations, we launched ReThink Health, an effort built to search for and connect with community stewards across the country who are willing to rethink the status quo and devise a better path forward for their cities and towns.
We equip these stewards with practical tools, such as how to balance investments in the conditions needed to create strong and healthy communities for the long-term with those required to address urgent needs. We also provide coaching to help stewards more effectively convince others to join their cause, negotiate priorities, and measure progress.
The goal is to bolster the work of community stewards in the Fox Cities such as Kayla Lones and Faith Roska, 19-year-old Black women who work as youth organizers at community groups. Both have experienced firsthand the problems facing their increasingly diverse community. They recently recounted being chased on the playground when they were children and called the “hard N-word” in their high-school hallway.
What’s Working — and What’s Not
Imagine Fox Cities has hosted more than 80 gatherings where thousands of residents like Kayla and Faith share stories and insights about what they love about their community and what needs to change. In 2019 and again in 2021, Imagine Fox Cities also conducted communitywide well-being surveys designed to measure distinct groups of people who are thriving, struggling, and suffering. Only about half of the nearly 3,000 residents who responded each time reported that they were thriving. Less than 10 percent said they had a very strong sense of belonging.
In response, the 350 people assembled at the first Imagine Fox Cities Summit in October 2019 endorsed a formal vision statement for their community and formed what they called a “Belonging Group,” invoking James Baldwin who said, “The place I belong will not exist until I make it.”
Last summer, after a pandemic-related pause on community gatherings, Imagine Fox Cities brought together hundreds of residents for a Strive to Thrive Week, featuring outdoor walks, mental-health workshops, family events, a food drive, and hours of dialogue meant to build community and those feelings of belonging.
Kayla and Faith led a Strive to Thrive workshop among youth of color, who suggested racism training for the area’s white residents. Other workshops spotlighted additional ideas: a Hmong resident suggested older adults may feel more welcome if signs are in languages they can read. A young researcher spoke up to say that the community should organize events that feel welcoming for specific groups, such as a celebration for the area’s transgender population. Business executives discussed the racial wealth gap and explored how they can join forces to create a more equitable economy.
The Fox Cities stewards still have a lot of hard work ahead. But many residents have expressed hope that things can change for the better. There is a sense that they are on their way to turning the Fox Cities into a place where everyone feels part of the community, embraced for who they are, and valued for what they bring. Community dialogues are key to building that sense of hope, but so, too, is public support from the mayor of Appleton, the area’s largest municipality, who ran his 2020 campaign on the Imagine Fox Cities goals of belonging and thriving.
An Antidote to Division
The efforts underway in the Fox Cities can take hold in any community across the country. During more than a decade working with ReThink Health, I have seen again and again that when systems fail, people rise. That is why in an era of deep division, a growing movement of shared stewardship is gaining strength.
Some of the most impressive people in that movement are often unseen and uncelebrated, like the stewards of the Fox Cities. But their efforts — and countless others nationwide — could mean the difference between a future of escalating adversity and one where all people and places prosper together, without exception.
Philanthropists cannot control or corral this movement, but they can be catalysts who help it spring forward with greater force and direction. They can also become better stewards themselves through their inward operations and their outward initiatives. Together, we can set aside the transactional habits of old-style philanthropy and play transformational roles as interconnected stewards in a movement for well-being and justice.