A Community Conversation: Preserving Our Past, Transforming Our Future

Date: Saturday, June 7
Time: 8:30 am – 1 pm
Location: The College of New Jersey, Education Building Room 212

Join the Ewing Green Team for a morning of planning to begin a process of creating a comprehensive community sustainability plan, created in partnership with the Ewing Township Municipality, the Environmental Commission, the Township Planner, TCNJ representatives and other community stakeholders.

OUR GOALS

To Gain a shared understanding of the community’s strengths, needs and potential for action…
To Increase our shared knowledge of sustainability issues: challenges, opportunities, means to ends, best practices…
To Create action plans with measurable objectives that lead to increased sustainability…
To Complete the drafting of a Strategic Plan which identifies goals and actions for Ewing’s sustainable future…

By Invitation Only

Early registration is strongly recommend. Attendance at this event is by invitation only and is limited to 120 participants. A waiting list will be established for community members who would like to come beyond the first 120 who register. Residents who cannot attend but would like to stay informed about our progress can sign up to receive email updates from our event registration page.

The Zero Waste Principle

“We are striving to make this a Zero Waste event with the goal of 90% + waste diversion.” see our Zero Waste page for additional information.

What is Community Visioning?

Community visioning is a process by which a community envisions the future it wants for itself and future generations through public participation. Using this process Ewing Township residents will:

Preserve Our Past
We will recognize where we have come from and evaluate our township as it currently exists, and identify what is it about our community that we most value. In doing so we will attempt to answer two salient questions where are we now? and where are we going?

Transform Our Future
We will imagine where we would like our community to be in ten or twenty years and create a shared vision that will form the basis for developing goals and completing actions that move the community toward a more ideal, sustainable community. In this phase two additional questions are answered: Where do we want to be? and finally, How do we get there? in which we create an action plan for our sustainable future.

The Process

This project will be the first time a global community focus on sustainability will have been addressed in an in-depth way in our Township. It will bring together residents, resources, and partnerships to plan sustainability actions for the next three years and beyond. The process will be facilitated by Natalie Barney and Lori Braunstein of Maga Sustainability, LLC. Both Lori and Natalie were instrumental in facilitating a similar process for Sustainable Cherry Hill.

Background

In the fall 2013 Ewing was awarded the Sustainable Jersey Bronze certification. Following certification the Green Team engaged in board training, dedicating a portion of the monthly general meetings to increasing attendees’ familiarity with sustainability concepts such as systems thinking and exploring our role as stewards of the environment. Green Team member study groups were organized to focus on the eight major areas of sustainability: Energy Alternatives, Food and Gardening, Walking and Biking, Communities, Recycling, Open Space, Wildlife and Natural Resources, and Local Economic Development. [As an FYI, in August and October, the Green Team conducted public surveys at National Night Out and Community Fest, asking citizens to rank these eight areas by order of importance to them.]

The study groups plan to: 1) continue to examine the eight sustainability subject areas and attempt to define the scope of the problems and opportunities in each of these areas; 2) collect relevant data; 3) identify potential partners; and 4) establish priorities for action. Action goals will be set within each group as well as goals for increasing organizational capacity.

Project Milestones

Community Visioning Meeting One – June 2014
An opportunity for members of the community to create a common vision of sustainability in Ewing, and identify priority sustainability issues for the community.
After the visioning meeting , the GT will gather to examine the findings of the visioning. The facilitators will present a synopsis of the meeting in writing and work with the GT to establish next steps with the existing sub-committees and any new areas of interest established during the visioning.
The GT, along with the facilitators, will review goals and actions and prioritize actions based on input from the first visioning.
A Strategic Plan will be created and include a summary of the Visioning meeting, identification of established goals and actions, and a timeline/task responsibility spreadsheet to guide the GT in the completion of actions.
Community Visioning Meeting Two – early January 2015
The draft of a Strategic Plan will be presented to the community members in attendance at the first visioning and provide them opportunity to comment on the proposed plan.
The Strategic Plan will be finalized
Public Presentation of the Strategic Plan – 2015
Begin process of implementing actions identified in the Strategic Plan.