An open letter to our Wellville communities, partners and friends:
On my hike early this morning, I paused for a moment – immersed in stillness, breath visible in the rising light, the trail before me covered in untouched snow – and I stepped forward again.
It must have felt a bit like this for the people from our Wellville communities, when they gathered all those years ago to take their first energized and uncertain steps on this 10-year journey. And here they are still, continuing to walk new paths they create together, now in greater numbers and strengthened by a decade of learning and progress.
How do you summarize the efforts of five U.S. communities that participated over 10 years in the national nonprofit Wellville project, which concluded on December 31, 2024? Their work is too expansive for a report; their stories too many for a presentation; and their insights too varied for video testimonials. Yet this moment is too important not to try. So all of these artifacts are now posted here on our website.
A few highlights:
1) Change from Within
The Wellville National team is often asked: What did the communities accomplish? What worked and what didn’t? And how can we learn from this?
Our reflections on these questions are included in the posted materials. The experiences of our communities have also raised lots of other questions for all of us – communities, funders, legislators and more – to consider as we move forward from here. Wellville was always about curiosity.
What I’ve come to appreciate most during these 10 years is the powerful capacity for communities to change from within. A better world doesn’t come from outside experts telling us what to do. It requires inner transformation that is both:
- Personal – challenging deeply held assumptions about ourselves, our communities and what’s holding the status quo in place; and
- Collective – building on the inherent capacity of communities to connect more broadly, think more creatively, and work more collaboratively toward their long-term shared interests.
(How did the Wellville communities create change from within? Read a few stories in this recent presentation.)
2) Results through Relationships
The Wellville communities are getting results because they prioritized the ongoing, sometimes messy work of building relationships. During the 10-year Wellville project, we helped our communities convene stakeholders across neighborhoods, institutions and systems to:
- Listen empathetically and generatively;
- Uncover ground truths about the causes of harm and health;
- Imagine new futures;
- Collaborate across institutions and cultures; and
- Move forward together, learning and adjusting through all the breakdowns and potential opportunities that emerge along the way.
The annual Wellville Gatherings were an opportunity to set aside daily distractions, get to know each other more deeply, and reflect together. Gathering in this way can generate profound change in ourselves and our relationships that reweaves the social fabric of our communities.
Connecting across differences (along with occasional conflict) has changed how people in the Wellville communities see each other, the places they love, their shared histories and future possibilities.
The results? Over the past decade, these relationships led to:
- Long-term community-wide initiatives, policies and systems that are now producing more equitable outcomes in areas ranging from maternal health and early childhood to neighborhood development and economic opportunity.
- Example: North Hartford (CT) Ascend, a coordinated system of prenatal-to-career supports to help all children and families thrive, has emerged from trust-building, shared decision-making and collaboration among residents and local institutions.
- Hundreds of millions of dollars in co-investment from a broader, thus likely more sustainable, variety of internal and external sources.
- Example: Spartanburg County, SC raised $100 million to advance economic mobility and educational attainment, building on a culture of collective action and results from efforts like Spartanburg Academic Movement and Hello Family, which was financed through “pay for success.”
- Skills and inclusive practices that facilitate deeper connections, bridge differences and focus collective learning and action on shared interests.
- Example: Livability Lab, Muskegon County, MI’s annual process to generate ideas, form action teams and make meaningful progress over a 100-day challenge, has connected people across a diverse range of towns and demographics to launch dozens of programs, like How YOU Birth Doulas.
- Processes and structures for ongoing collaboration across networks of people in neighborhoods and institutions.
- Example: Lake County, CA’s Hope Rising collaborative brought together executives from competing health systems, along with leaders from county government and nonprofits, to develop initiatives that address shared needs, such as Hope Center, which assists community members experiencing homelessness.
- Greater trust and local leaders who will carry the work forward.
- Example: Clatsop County, OR created stronger connections through networks like CHART: Community Health Advocacy + Resource Team, elevated the voices of Hispanic and Latino residents through the Clatsop Equity Committee, and supported local leaders in developing community assets, like the Outpost.
(Check out this process evaluation for more examples of Wellville community results created through stronger relationships, along with some implications for the field at the end.)
3) Learning Along the Way
There’s no template for this work. How communities come together depends a lot on local people and context. When we started working with the Wellville communities, we didn’t hand them a destination and turn-by-turn directions. Having the power to shape the kind of community you want to live in improves health in ways that prescriptive interventions can’t. Communities need to walk their own path – though, sometimes a catalyst can help.
Our communities told us that the typical two-year, top-down approach of too many grant programs is ineffective in sustainably changing the way communities work. And they didn’t need more “toolkits” or technical assistance promoting someone else’s theory of change. What we offered instead were dedicated Wellville advisors whose job was to be present – showing up again and again, in person, in coffee shops, at community meetings – asking questions, encouraging progress, facilitating connections and conversations, provoking new ways of seeing old problems, and learning together through failure and success.
This experience has taught us important lessons: Plans are provisional. Goals and tactics need to be adjusted in light of emerging realities. Intrinsic motivation – people doing things they believe in – is more powerful than incentivizing what we think would be best. Relationships are built working through the nitty-gritty details of the often-unpredictable dynamics of communities.
(Watch these video testimonials and hear how Wellville community members describe their own experience of learning and improving together.)
4) Beginning Again Together
Birch bark – like the piece I brought home from my walk this morning – is a symbol of renewal, hope and new beginnings in cultures ranging from Indigenous Peoples to Celtic mythology. It is an example of the many gifts shared among our Wellville community members during our annual Gatherings, connecting people across time and place. The centerpiece of our final Gathering in 2024 was a wonderful collaborative art project called Story River (see below) that was created by artists from our Wellville communities. Over three days together, people from all five communities contributed their stories and symbols to Story River, representing meaningful moments from the past 10 years and aspirations for the next 10.
This practice of looking back to look forward – embodied by the mythical Sankofa bird – happened in several ways during the last six months of the Wellville project. In each community, we brought together residents and other stakeholders in a series of LIFT* convenings (*Learning into the Future Together). This work is ongoing; it requires continual renewal. That’s why the “conclusion” of the 10-year Wellville project is much more like a “commencement” (thanks to Wellville founder, Esther Dyson, for that reframing!).
The beginning of this next decade is a moment to share gratitude. Leading the Wellville project over the past decade – working alongside you all, developing deep relationships and learning our way forward together – has been one of the greatest good fortunes of my life. Thank you.
It’s also a moment when we need the inspiring example of the Wellville communities – thousands of people working locally to make the world a better place – to remind us of this most important insight: We need each other.
We need each other to see and free ourselves from the habits of mind and heart that hold us back. We need each other to connect more broadly and deeply, including across perceived differences that too often keep us apart. And we need each other to learn our way through the inevitable twists and turns we encounter while walking paths we create together.
Change comes from within us – all of us. And we build our capacity for a better future through the ongoing work of discovering and acting on what we care about.
With love, gratitude and hope for every community,
Rick and the Wellville National Team – Jeff, Marya, Kathleen, Christina, Rick, Esther and Tony
