S12 E47 Transforming Manchester with Gayle Turner & Shelli Jost Brady

"Transforming Manchester: From Barren Wasteland to Vibrant Community - Shelli Jost Brady's Journey" Have you ever wondered how a neglected neighborhood can be transformed into a thriving community? Delve into Shelli Jost Brady’s remarkable efforts to revitalize Manchester, VA. Discover the importance of restoring and redeveloping neglected spaces and the impact it can have on a city's growth. [What you need to know] Shelli Jost Brady, a former member of the Richmond City Planning Commission, embarked on a personal mission to transform the neglected neighborhood of Manchester, an abandoned area with no amenities, making it unattractive for residents and businesses. Shelli and a group of property owners cohered around a vision to revitalize the area, creating a downtown hub with the river as a central feature.The transformation involved not only rebranding but also infusing a new culture into the community, breathing life into the once-disrespected neighborhood.Shelli emphasizes the importance of taking risks, being flexible, and learning from mistakes in the transformation process. [What you need to do] Embrace the idea of incremental development and start taking small steps toward revitalizing neglected spaces.Identify the area you wish to transform and build a vision around them.Engage property owners, community members, and local stakeholders to create a unified message and garner support.Consider the needs and desires of the community when planning and implementing development initiatives.Be open to experimentation, adapt to feedback, and be willing to correct any mistakes along the way. [TAKE ACTION] Join Shelli Jost Brady and her team in transforming neglected areas into vibrant communities. Embrace the challenges and rewards of revitalization, and be a catalyst for positive change in your own neighborhood. Remember, taking small steps can lead to significant transformations. Start making a difference today!   Shelli Jost Brady (she/her/hers) is a business owner, social entrepreneur and servant leader since age 29. She has focused her essence, her efforts and her energy on creating place and belongingness for every community with which she’s worked. Shelli is a graduate of Virginia Tech. She holds multiple advanced degrees & certificates in design, architecture, business, leadership, trauma, and peace education, She’s known as a catalyst for transformation. She’s an innovator. She’s resilient and has used story to overcome adversity, and help diverse and challenged cultures worldwide re-story themselves into sustainable entities. Enhancing leadership capacity, designing space, developing education programs, facilitating social justice initiatives, and pioneering economic development projects are just a few of the areas she’s been engaged to contribute her magic. Her military-dependent, nomadic youth instilled the importance of finding affinity in disparate groups to create comfort in ever changing and dangerous environments. Understanding that Storytelling transcends barriers within our communities as well as in our own minds, she works with people to help them release their old narratives and create new ones. She encourages us to tell ourselves, and each other, stories worth living https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelli-jost-brady-94b44835/ Gayle Turner is President of The Storytellers Channel, Inc. https://storytellerschannel.com/ For close to five decades he has used the power of story to initiate and sustain change while growing leaders and building productive corporate and community cultures. Check out his LinkedIn profile to learn the rest of the story. https://www.linkedin.com/in/wgayleturner/  If you'd like to explore how clarifying your organization's stories and sharing the stories that exemplify those values can improve performance click here and schedule a time to talk with Gayle. #Richmond, #stories, #Manchester, #create, #storytellers, #restore, # leaders, #transform, #business