Community Heart & Soul
Community Heart & Soul® is a national model for community engagement that supports small town revitalization by helping communities identify and take action on what matters most to them.
Sharing a belief that people who live in our region hold the wisdom to make it better, the Community Heart & Soul initiative was adopted by Rochester Area Community Foundation in 2025.
What is Community Heart & Soul?
Every community has a unique “Heart & Soul” — the pride residents feel, the places they love to show visitors, the gathering places where people connect, and the ways neighbors come together to work across differences.
Community Heart & Soul is a discovery process that helps small cities and towns identify the priorities, places, and traditions that matter most to the people who live, work, and play there — and turn those elements into actions to build a brighter future for current and future generations.
Benefits of Community Heart & Soul
Led by residents in partnership with local officials, Community Heart & Soul strengthens community engagement, builds trust, sparks economic development, and honors history and culture. It becomes an ongoing practice for years to come — not a plan that sits on a shelf.
- Pride and confidence grow in the community
- Volunteerism increases and new leaders emerge
- Residents feel more connected to one another
- Investment in economic and community development projects increases
- Local governments better understand what matters to residents
- Communities become “grant-ready” with defined, resident-informed priorities to help attract funding
A Tested Process for Community Engagement
Many people have been part of community efforts that stall because of lack of engagement, fragmentation, inadequate planning, poor investment choices, or minimal follow through. Community Heart & Soul offers a tested process for planning and decision-making that helps communities overcome those obstacles.
- Phase 1: Imagine | Heart & Soul teams are formed to build awareness, interest, and commitment in all segments of the community.
- Phase 2: Connect | Stories are gathered from residents, leading to the development of Heart & Soul Statements that identify what matters most and reflect what they love about their towns.
- Phase 3: Plan | Residents develop action plans to guide future town planning based on their Heart & Soul Statements.
- Phase 4: Act | Heart & Soul Statements are adopted, incorporated into plans, and put into action.
How and Why it Works
Community Heart & Soul is a resident-driven planning process that has a long track record of proven results. It consists of a field-tested, four-step process that is guided by three principles.
Guiding Principles
- Involve Everyone: Engage people where they already gather — block parties, schools, fairs, and other local events.
- Focus on What Matters Most: Turn stories from residents into priorities for the future.
- Play the Long Game: Build lasting change with an actionable framework to guide your community for years to come.
Support from National and Regional Funders
Community Heart & Soul is a national organization that has been refining this process in partnership with small cities and towns across America for over a decade. To date, more than 140 towns across America have used the model, engaging residents to build a future that reflects what people love about their community and why they choose to live there.
Selected communities are supported throughout the entire two-year process, benefitting from the experiences of those that went before them. Resident-led teams receive extensive training in order to lead the process in their towns.
Here in the greater Rochester area, these initiatives are supported by:
- Rochester Area Community Foundation
- Community Heart & Soul
- Ralph C. Wilson, Jr Foundation
- Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo
Community Selection Process
Rochester Area Community Foundation and Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo opened a call for proposals in 2025 to communities in Genesee and Orleans counties. Six communities raised their hands and embarked on a series of exploratory conversations to determine if Community Heart & Soul was the right approach and if their town was ready to embark on the journey.
Two communities were selected to immediately begin the Community Heart & Soul process: the Town of Carlton and Village of Corfu. Batavia was selected to start later in the year with direct support from Rochester Area Community Foundation through discretionary resources.
Community Heart & Soul News
- Bringing Community Heart & Soul to the greater Rochester region
- Corfu, Carlton, and Batavia Selected for Small Town Revitalization Initiative
Frequently Asked Questions
A community foundation is a nonprofit organization that engages communities and distributes resources to benefit a defined geographic area. They pool donations, manage permanent endowments, issue grants to nonprofits, and bring people together to address local needs.
Community Heart & Soul often involves community foundations working alongside residents in a way that grows skills among everyone involved. By working with more than 140 communities, the national organization has found that going through the process builds trust between community foundations and the communities they serve as people form relationships, work together, and produce results that everyone can see and feel.
Rochester Area Community Foundation serves Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, and Yates counties. The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo serves Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans, and Wyoming counties.
Genesee and Orleans counties are served by both foundations, which allowed the two organizations to pool resources to bring Community Heart & Soul to this area together.
Community Heart & Soul was founded by Lyman Orton, proprietor of the Vermont Country Store, as a way to engage residents in making decisions about their future. The model has been refined and field-tested over the last decade working with more than 140 small cities and towns across the U.S.
At the end of the two-year process, communities will have formed a team of coaches and volunteers, gathered input from residents, identified common ground, gathered and prioritized ideas, developed an action plan, and begun implementation. There are opportunities through the process to fundraise and build permanent endowments to support these efforts for years to come. Communities typically see increased civic engagement, greater alignment around long-term plans, and an increased ability to attract investment for economic priorities.
To get connected to your local Community Heart & Soul team in Corfu, Carlton, or Batavia, contact Paige O’Connor, Rural Community Impact Associate at Rochester Area Community Foundation (poconnor@racf.org or 585.341.4332).
You can visit the Community Heart & Soul website at https://www.communityheartandsoul.org/ or reach out to Paige O’Connor to be connected to a Heart & Soul staff member.
Connect with Community Heart & Soul Coaches
Sara Bukowiec
Director of Rural Community Impact
Paige O’Connor
Rural Community Impact Associate
Rochester Area Community Foundation Initiatives
Interested in learning more about our other initiatives? Click the logos to learn more.
