We are pleased to announce that Biddeford has been awarded the Heart and Soul Community Planning Grant from the Orton Family Foundation in Vermont. For more information, click HERE and stay tuned for updates on this website!

We have begun out Heart and Soul Community Planning project!  Below is a graphic done by our facilitator, Denis Lachman, which helps to explain our approach.  

1. The first phase of our project will be to gather stories from the community.  Do you know anyone who has a good story to share?  What is important to you about downtown Biddeford?  What is the Heart and Soul of this community in your opinion?  Stay tuned for community gatherings and story telling opportunities!
2. The second phase will be analyzing all of the information, stories, and community input we have gathered.  We hope to start the seed for a full fledged oral histories project with this information, or add this information to a museum down the road...but mostly we want to share common values and stories, ideas and dreams, insights and ideas and identify what this community sees as Biddeford's Heart and Soul atributes.
   
3. Phase 3 involves taking information from phase 1 and phase 2 and putting together a team who will help to create a Downtown Master Plan.  This plan will be a road map for how we grow downtown.

If you would like to be involved, have a good story, or want to know more...please email us at heartofbiddeford@gmail.com.

The Wall
Below are photos of the development of our project illustrated by the project wall in the Heart of Biddeford office.

1. In the beginning...BLANK SLATE!

2. Beginnings...we're starting to plan the trainings and launch event!

3. January's calander.

4. Outline of the next steps. 

5. Storytelling workshop with Barbara Ganley (o3.o9.o9)