Dream City Vision 2020: Civic journalism drives community dialogue

Based in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado, Dream City Vision 2020 (2008-2009) launched a website, multidisciplinary art contest, and art summit as tri-fold avenues through which citizens could share their ideal vision for the region in 2020. The genesis of Dream City emerged from an interest in the value of community-based journalism among employees at The Gazette. The associates at the newspaper reached out to the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region (COPPeR), Leadership Pikes Peak, and the Pikes Peak Library District to launch the project. The leaders behind Dream City prioritized the arts as a major element from the inception of the project; COPPeR hosted the project’s first large-scale event, an Art Summit, in 2009. At the Summit, community members were invited to help design a cultural plan for the region. Subsequent initiatives and artistic outputs included discussion groups, art exhibits, public talks, and published pieces about community history in The Gazette.
39 Articles From the Gazette Archives about Dreamcity2020: Search Results of Gazette Articles
DreamCity 2020 Web Site:
Overview:


In 2009, Ensemble Ventures, LLC and the Colorado Springs Enterepreneurs Group participated as an IT Advisor, and active volunteer respectively, in the DreamCity2020 Initaitive that was developed and sponsored by The Gazette, Leadership Pikes Peak, Pikes Peak Library District and COPPeR (Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region) who were the initial organizing entities behind the effort to "capture" in time what the citizens of Colorado Springs wanted their city to look like in 2020 along the lines of 10 Quality of Life Indicators.
Ensemble agreed to take over the web-site development and hosting of the DreamCity2020 site that originally started with and was set-up and managed by The Gazette. It is now located at: http://www.dreamcity2020.co Or you can click on the web-page thumbnail at the right.
After moving the basic site to a more robust Content Management System, Ensemble created a "depository" oriented website that captured the inputs, suggestions, and comments from close to 3,000 Colorado Springs citizens that was solicited from a dedicated base of 300 volunteers that "fanned out" across the comunity in 100's of small meetings, and focus group sessions to capture the inputs from citizens.
Since, then Ensemble has set-up and continues to host this important community-oriented site so that it can be used a resoruce for historical research on this most successfully managed community-based event, and to provide a platform for future communciations and collaborations moving forward.
Current Site Status and Future Enhancements:
You may find some broken links or URL references to previous local sites that we had originally linked to... If you do, let us know and we will work to update them or replace them with updated content. This was a non-profit contribution of effort by Ensemble Ventures to the community, and will continue to be hosted and maintaned for the future use by the Citizens of Colorado Springs.
If you have any questions or comments about the site, and suggestions for future enhancements or capabilities please use the Contact US form on the site and send us your ideas.
Regards,
Mike Schmidt, CEO
Ensemble Ventures, LLC

Ensemble Ventures, LLC
P.O. Box 15198
Colorado Springs, CO 80935