Starting with Place

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If you're looking for a way to boost your community's sense of place, researchers at Gustavson University in Sweden have just the thing.

They've developed a set of five principles that community leaders can follow to "revitalize their communities despite socio-economic and environmental challenges," in the words of their book, Revitalizing Place through Social Enterprise.

The five principles are: Promote community leaders: They "play a critical role in catalyzing others to help drive positive changes and nurture pride in the community," the authors write.

They also "often do so by launching social enterprises or other initiatives to advance the community's interests by, for example, building leadership capacity in others."

Embedding compelling stories: Positive stories "can provide hope and counter negative, self-defeating discourse in places impacted by economic decline," the authors write.

On Fogo Island in Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, the Shorefast community group "often repeated positive messages about Fogo Island's history and culture in presentations and in interviews with media," the authors write.

Be financially viable: "Social enterprises recognize the value in the assets of their place and leverage them, even when others do not," the authors write.

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