Taylor Smith, Economic Development Coordinator for the town of Thomaston Georgia, shares how Community Heart & Soul restores community pride. Through the Heart & Soul process in his community, there’s now strong support for investment in community improvement embraced by town government officials, private businesses, and residents.

“Heart & Soul is instrumental in providing a path for us to provide the quality of life improvements to our community. Whether it’s the City of Thomaston, the Board of Education, or private business owners, you now have people who are investing in this community with their time, their money, their heart, and their soul because they see the hope and the opportunity that’s come from of this Heart & Soul process.” —Taylor Smith, Economic Development Coordinator, Thomaston, Georgia

About Community Heart & Soul
Founded by Lyman Orton, proprietor of The Vermont Country Store, Community Heart & Soul is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to establish and promote a community practice that engages all residents within a community in determining what matters most to the people who live there and uses their ideas and aspirations as the blueprint for a better future. The Community Heart & Soul model has been field-tested in over 90 communities across the U.S. Orton established Community Heart & Soul after serving on his town’s planning commission and growing frustrated that decisions being made that would shape the town’s future were without guidance from the majority of the residents.