Case Study #4
How might we build civic pride, retain talent and inspire economic development in the community?
Many local leaders feel that the county has a huge chip on its shoulder from sitting in the shadows of the both the Bay Area and Los Angeles. As one leader described “Stanislaus County is like someone who is beautiful, creative, and all about possibility, but just feels like complete garbage about themselves.”
Two teams worked on this idea of cultivating civic pride as a way to push perception of Stanislaus County as a vibrant, emerging and creative community. The first team experimented with locals experiencing living downtown. The film that resulted was shown to community leaders and across social media channels to demonstrate how downtown caters to families, foodies and more. The second team looked at bolstering the creative economy of the economy by hosting an event to connect artists and designers and give visibility to the fact that Modesto is an affordable and supportive community for creative entrepreneurs.
The push to have residents recognize that they needed to tell a different story about living in Stanislaus County eventually resulted in a creation of a civic incubator that stewards and promotes work that engenders civic pride. The hashtag #GloriousModesto has gone viral across the community.