By Amy Fairweather
November 14, 2017
As I write this first column, I’m feeling heartfelt gratitude for the work Blake Musser has done in leading the Collaborate Freeport efforts over the past six months. Blake’s gift of strategy has helped position Collaborate Freeport and many other organizations to see things in a different light, become more flexible, and to consider embracing change.
Though Blake is moving on to accept a new challenge in our area, his efforts will have a long-term impact on how we move our community forward.
I believe small causes can lead to big impacts. I’m proud of what Collaborate Freeport has achieved so far and equally proud of where it’s headed. We haven’t been perfect and we’ve made mistakes along the way, but we’ve always known the intention and we’ve kept our vision.
When our grassroots effort began two years ago, our goal was to help stimulate interest in our community through elevated marketing and engaged storytelling. Our intention was to strengthen our marketing message to the outside world, build stronger community coalitions and collaborations, and help build a vibrant and more engaged community.
Our community today is going through monumental changes, and sometimes change is not easy. We are being asked to lean into each other in ways we haven’t before and to create new ways of delivering services to maximize impact and sustainability in the community. Results, outcomes and efficiencies have become more important than ever.
As I see it, our success in orchestrating a new model for delivering marketing and economic development services and building a stronger community depends heavily on the attitudes we each carry and the heart with which we approach change. Cooking with love has always provided much deeper nourishment than cooking without it.
Last week marked the end of our first year of launching a new brand and marketing effort for Freeport and Stephenson County. Freeport ALL IN and ALL IN Freeport serves as an invitation — to attract the attention of outside visitors — and it also serves as an internal call-to-action to motivate and influence a new kind of narrative. Our community’s new website — freeport-all-in.com — is one of many new efforts that we have taken on.
We have many more initiatives we are working on and look forward to rolling out in the coming year and beyond. Though we hope you will stay tuned to watch the new and exciting changes taking place in our community, we really hope you will engage with us, roll up your sleeves, invest your time and resources in a project you are passionate about, and help us make Freeport and Stephenson County a destination in northwest Illinois.
Amy Fairweather is creative director of Collaborate Freeport. She can be reached at amy@collaboratefreeport.com.
Journal Standard article link.
