Your Community Toolbelt

Do you think that public life in Gunnison County could be better?

The United States is a democracy. Democracy can only work if everyone participates.

Whether your family has been here for many, many generations or has just arrived; whether you are a person of wealth or not; whether you are young or older; whether you’ve had lots of education or not; whatever your cultural background… you are important.

Do you have an idea of how public life could be better? If people with such ideas don’t get involved, we stand to lose the “pursuit of happiness” and “liberty and justice for all.”

We need you, whoever you are! We’ll call your participation, “civic engagement.”

What is civic engagement?

“Civic engagement” can refer to participating in your government or participating in the nearly 100 nonprofits here in the Gunnison Valley. You can be involved in many ways:

attend and speak at public meetings
serve on a board or public commission
run for elected office or work for a candidate
organize and advocate for a cause you care about .

This video has a nice overview of civic engagement. (If you click through to watch it on YouTube, a transcript is available for accessibility.)

Important Questions to Ask Yourself

Question #1: Are you willing to try?

Question #2: Are you willing to work with other people to get things done?

If you have answered “yes” to both questions, then read on!

If you want to change something, it works best if you involve four types of people. Each is probably really good at some things, maybe not so good or impatient with other things. Together, they can make change.

You’ll all need to know, or know how to find, some basic information. But then, depending on what type of leader you are (and yes! whoever you are, you can be a leader!) there’s different information that may be especially useful or may especially resonate with who you are.

Let's Get Started

If you scroll down to our Resource Library, you’ll find resources you might want to add to your “community toolbelt.” They can be sorted based on different “categories” in the table below. If you click through to a resource, you’ll find that they also have “tags” to make it easier to find similar resources. Some of them will be useful no matter what kind of leader you are. Those are marked as “For All Leaders” in the categories column. Those are a good place to start.

Next, think about who you are and how you’ve helped work for change in the past. Read the four descriptions below for different types of leaders. A lot of people have traits of a few different types of leaders, but you’ll usually find that one feels more natural or comfortable. If you’re not sure, think about a time when you have successfully worked for change. How did you do it? Which description below best describes how you did the work? That’s probably your type.

Once you think you know your type, click the “plus” icon that goes with it. They’re you’ll find a name for your leadership type and a very brief description. The name of your leadership type will help you sort through our whole resource library below to find which tools will be most useful to you as you assemble a toolbelt for building the change you want to see in our community.

You're a big picture thinker who likes to get things done yesterday.

We’ll call you a “Driver.” You see how pieces fit together. You’re good at leading a group to get to a goal. You can find resources that might be especially useful for you by clicking on “Driver” in the categories column below.

You're a person who loves to gather facts and stories to make a powerful case.

We’ll call you an “Architect/Analyst.” Your superpower is collecting data and using it to make a strong case for something you believe in. You can find resources that are especially useful for your leadership type by clicking on “Architects and Analysts” in the categories column below.

You're a team player who knows and cares for lots of people.

We’ll call you a “Relationship Master.” Your friends and people in your community trust you and know they can count on you to show up for them. You’re the central hub for your social network. You can find resources that are especially useful for your leadership type by clicking on “Relationship Masters” in the categories column below.

You're a person who can motivate others.

We’ll call you a “Spontaneous Motivator.” Your charisma is irresistible and you know how to give a speech that will get people cheering. You can find resources that are especially useful for your leadership type by clicking on “Spontaneous Motivators” in the categories column below.

Resource Library Instructions

Choose from one of the categories or browse through the entire library on this page. Click a title to see information about that document or link, click a category name to sort by that category, click the download button to download the document or go to a link, or click the magnifying glass for a document preview. All links to documents or outside URLs open a new window.