The One and Only Out-of-Towners: A New Civic Path Book Group

Since July 2025, The Patterson Foundation has been engaging with community members through book circles discussing Rich Harwood’s The New Civic Path: Restoring our Belief in One Another and Our Nation. In that time, people in Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee, and Sarasota counties gathered in person and virtually to discuss the book’s themes. One of the aims of the book circles is for readers to foster a sense of hope for collaboration on the issues that matter and to take action, however small.

My book circle was different. LinkedIn connections outside the Suncoast took notice of the book circles and inquired about participating. In the spirit of Caring > Connecting > Collaborating > Contributing > Creating, the first and only book circle of out-of-town members was approved and launched. Aptly named, the “Out-of-Towners” group represented Saint Augustine and Tampa in Florida, and states New York, Texas, and Wisconsin. The group’s diverse geography set the tone that we had to make up for not being proximal in our virtual meetings, and reminded us that no matter where we live, we can find others who care about the same things. 

The five participants represented the public, private, and nonprofit sectors and included a librarian and a seminarian, in addition to others in business development, higher education, and aging services. Each participant expressed their fatigue with “politics as usual” and emphasized that a local approach to community work not only made activism more manageable but also more hopeful for them as individuals.

Participants shared that they regularly unplugged from the news to preserve their mental health, conveying a seemingly endless stream of negativity and woe. I did not have a specific set of goals or a prescription for how I would facilitate the group outside of the guiding questions I had been provided for each session, but I did set out to make everyone feel welcome, included, heard, and valued. By the end, it became clear the group was unintentionally helping one of its members with planning a community-facing project that had initially seemed too big to take on. In just three sessions, ideas were shared, a rough framework for the project emerged, and the individual felt as though the project was doable. I noticed how willing participants were to come back to the project in their comments, how they connected their responses to the guiding questions back to project ideas and possible plans, and how this generated even more thoughts on project execution. 

Leading the first non-local group presented only opportunities. I took on the responsibility as a privilege, viewing it as a chance to make new connections, sharpen my listening and facilitation skills, and introduce The Patterson Foundation to a broader audience. One takeaway from this experience has reinforced the importance of collaboration and how necessary and valuable support personnel can be to deliver quality and excellence no matter your expertise, especially in virtual learning environments. 

Shout-out to Sandra Vega-Piccietti for being a wonderful Wizard to my Dorothy, and to Debra Jacobs, CEO of The Patterson Foundation, for allowing our unique group the chance to meet.