DREAM CITY 2020 FAQ:

Q. What is Dream City?

A. Dream City is your chance to share your vision of our community's future.

Q. Who can participate?

A. You! Whether you are a kid, adult, corporate/nonprofit executive, homemaker, teacher, lawyer, daycare provider, banker, athlete, senior citizen, artist or a little of everything - your vision of this community counts and we want to hear your unique perspective as a part of Dream City. Click here (link to questionnaire) to tell us how you'd like to get involved. We can also get you engaged in an existing project that fits your interests.

Q. How can I get involved?

A . Fill out the questionnaire (link to questionnaire) and give us your e-mail address so we can send you Dream City news and invitations electronically.

You can volunteer to facilitate community vision dialogue sessions - training will be provided.

You can become a Dream City sponsor by making a donation toward this effort.

You can create art for the Inspiration phase of the project. (Check back on the web site for more details soon.)

Your organization can plan a Dream City event.

You can attend Dream City events throughout the community. See the schedule for more details.

You can participate in the upcoming Dream City visioning dialogue sessions and the Dream City summit in early '09.

You can post your group's visioning results or master plans on this Web site. (Link to email.)

Q. Is Dream City only for residents of Colorado Springs?

A. Absolutely not. This is a regional project for people who live in El Paso County, surrounding towns and unincorporated areas. Everyone who has a stake in this region is invited and encouraged to be part of the Dream City vision.

Q. How does Dream City differ from other/past community visioning projects?

A. Not since 1976 has our community embarked on a project of this magnitude - and that process generated ideas that lead to the development of the Pikes Peak Center, Downtown Partnership, the expansion of the Colorado Springs airport into a regional facility and more. The aim of Dream City is to reach out to each and every citizen - from young children to artists to senior citizens - and engage them in this crucial visioning process. Once the formal process has concluded, we want to help empower citizens to stay engaged as we work together to bring ideas to fruition.

Dream City will also inspire and engage the team members of the Collaborative Community Planning Program, a new initiative by Colorado Citizens for Culture, supported by the Colorado Council on the Arts and the Boettcher Foundation. Colorado Springs was chosen as one of eight communities statewide to participate in this program, which will connect representatives from Colorado Springs to a peer network of consultants and experts in an ongoing discussion about how to integrate arts and culture in to our area's long-term planning process.

Q. What makes an event a Dream City event?

A. Any event that relates to creating a vision of the future of the Pikes Peak region can be a Dream City event. Ideas include informational presentations/lectures, panel discussions, theatrical performances, discussion groups, art shows, online interactive experiences or almost anything you can dream of that fits in with the themes of the project. Events that examine our history as a community, past leaders and their visions, and/or ways we can learn from other cities can also be considered Dream City events. If your club, organization, class, or neighborhood has an idea let us know. Click here to submit your ideas for a Dream City project. (link to email)

Q. How will Dream City tie in to the Pikes Peak Library District's All Pikes Peak Reads program?

A. The library district has committed to connecting their extremely successful regional initiative to Dream City for the next two years. This year's books, "The Grapes of Wrath" and "The Worst Hard Time," will provide local organizations with the opportunity to look back at lessons we can learn from the past in planning for a better future. Next year's APPR program will look forward, with a book or series of books related to the Dream City project.

Q. How did the idea for the Dream City project start?

A. It started at The Gazette, where a couple of associates began dreaming about new ways to utilize the newspaper to help build community. They realized the key to any kind of region-wide community-building initiative would be reach. So they reached out to Leadership Pikes Peak, the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region (COPPeR) and the Pikes Peak Library District, and the idea grew into Dream City even as it continues to evolve.

Q. What will be the end result of this project?

A. Our first measure of success will be to engage as many people as possible in the process of sharing ideas about the future of our region, discussing issues, attending Dream City events, creating plans and/or art that reflect what we see as the best our community can become.

As the year progresses, we will identify common threads and unique aspects of your visions that come out of Dream City events and dialogue circles held around the region. (Check out the timeline of events for more information.) We will build on these ideas at our Dream City community summit next spring. Those attending the summit will have the opportunity to help refine the key elements of our collective community vision.

There are many possibilities for what happens after the summit - some parts of this vision will likely have obvious champions, others we hope will have groups of passionate citizens that spring up to bring ideas to fruition. Our hope is to bring together public, private and nonprofit sectors to use Dream City as an opportunity to focus their efforts toward this collective community vision.

Q. How does The Gazette's editorial philosophy mesh with its involvement in Dream City?

A. Dream City exemplifies much of The Gazette's philosophy. Dream City's focus is on empowering every citizen to help chart our future and this grassroots approach is something The Gazette currently embraces with projects like The Gazette-El Pomar Empty Stocking Fund (link to ESF site), which works to engage every citizen in community philanthropy regardless of social status or household income. That being said, this is also an exciting new way for The Gazette to connect with its readership and beyond.