Placemaking, Wellbeing, and Engagement

I met Fred Kent, the founder of Project for Public Spaces (PPS), when he traveled to Indiana to offer the keynote presentation at Ball State’s inaugural Primacy of Place conference. Thanks, in part, to being involved in palnning fror the conference, I had already made the connection between my work in community wellbeing and community engagement with the work coming out of PPS. I joined the Placemaking Leadership Council, and I was given the opportunity to share my views of salutogenesis (Aaron Antonovsky), co-production (Elinor Ostrom) and wellness/wellbeing (Halbert Dunn) at Future of Places, Health and Wellness, and Healthy City Design Conferences over the next few years. During my sabbatical leave from the university, my work with PPS explored the connection between PLACEMAKING, COMMUNITY WELLBEING, and ENGAGEMENT. Please join me for this presentation highlighting what I have learned. The event will take place live in front of an audience at MadJax in Munice, Indiana, and it will be simultaneously telecast through HPLive.

Objectives

At the end of this presentation, participants will have an improved understanding of:

• Placemaking
• The connection between where we live and our health and wellbeing
•  Systems approaches to meaningful change