In the Spring of 2008, the OFF and the Vermont Land Trust (VLT) in consultation with Animating Democracy (a program of Americans for the Arts), issued a Call for Community Partners to Addison County, Vermont towns eager to collaborate on a new approach to community engagement using the arts. Starksboro residents crafted a proposal that won the attention of the Foundation and the Land Trust that applied a nationally recognized model in the school - integrating arts for improved student engagement, to the broader community. The Foundation believes that by getting in touch with deeper community values and connections to place, citizens will be able to improve on traditional approaches to planning and make better decisions about the future of their communities. Key goals at the outset of the project: *Pilot an arts-based process to engage new audiences in a deep discussion of community heart and soul, values and identity. *Create a framework for reflection and discovery, creative expression and conversation, ongoing community dialogue and interaction using the arts and storytelling. *Explore ways to mitigate the divisiveness of many conservation discussions, opening a dialogue on difficult issues and leading participants to new ways of thinking. *Engage youth in multi-generational community conversations and decisions. *Build community capacity to continue dialogue, involve citizens and address new issues as they arise. *Conduct an open and inclusive process leading to a community vision. The project was implemented in three phases. 1.Community Storytelling: A Middlebury College class led by Professor John Elder spent three months collecting the stories of town residents. Among the 50 townspeople interviewed were elders, youth, landowners, farmers, town officials and local historians. Trained by the Vermont Folklife Center, the students asked residents to talk about their lives in Starksboro and allowed themes to emerge. The students produced audio and video clips, audio slide shows and a book of stories and interactive maps, which are available on the project website and are archived at the Vermont Folklife Center and the Starksboro Town Library. The storytelling phase culminated with a town-wide community supper and celebration attended by about 250 people, at which the Middlebury College students shared their final edited stories. The students distributed a book of Starksboro Stories (published by the College) to every family attending. The Middlebury class blog site, “Stories from a Vermont Town,” contains stories, video clips and discussions about how to make this project as valuable as possible to the people of Starksboro. [text via New England Foundation for the Arts]