Civic Engagement Corporation

a social entrepreneur who is environmentally motivated, creative, and a well-rounded leader with human resource and business management skills. After operating an architectural practice in Fort Lauderdale for 25 years and teaching as an adjunct professor in the architectural Department of Broward College, in 2009 I started a business called Fort Lauderdale vegetables whose primary purpose was to develop a local food system based on sustainable agricultural practices using the concept of decentralized farming in the urban context, encouraging community building and social justice. I recently started a new nonprofit called civic engagement Corporation is a 501(c)(3) public charity where our mission is education and awareness, and our vision is blind people as the ambassadors of mindfulness in the community. By the way, I am legally blind, with only 2% of my field of vision remaining. I'm 63 years old in the father of 2, purposeful and successful children

Vision: mindfully executed mythical artwork  local artists creating awareness  possibility for blind community and all others
multisensory murals,  4-block area  NE. 13th St.Fort Lauderdale.  murals  include  tactile plaque describing  artwork at  smaller scale  anyone can touch.  plaques located  on Google maps,for geocaching game. game will have voice description by  blind storyteller of  artwork, with clues for game,  hidden in artwork. players leave their mark through game. theme  artwork  Hero's Journey. artist  create murals of stories like  Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, philosopher's stone, or mythical story that expresses the theme.
artwork connected to the local history  people of Progresso Village , Fort Lauderdale. development of these local characters within  themes of murals an opportunity for  rich story,  underlying mythical hero's journey , that everyone would want to listen to not just the blind community. Creating a powerful shared myth that can connect people to each other and a place

blind people as the ambassadors of mindfulness in the community connecting  community members to each other and the civic environment where they live through art, culture pedestrian movement.  When people are connected to each other through sharing  common myth about a place where they live visit is a powerful emotional connection. I learned this  studying the power of myth from Joseph Campbell. Fort Lauderdale has grown people who live here Don't have  stories that connect to their home or the people who live here with them. engaging blind people to provide  context for stories  will support the blind to come out of isolation, shine their light on others show what is possible. Seeing a blind  leader  can  inspire other leaders in the community. There are 250,000 visually impaired people in Broward County that could experience this project.  by creating these fun pedestrian place making activities, we can bring blind people out of their isolation and engage with others in the community. Where pedestrian activity is often light, therefore real estate values are blighted because people drive by, these projects can create the pedestrian activity necessary to economically support ground-level retail and other service businesses that the community is currently lacking.

Beyond the murals.  elements within the pedestrian environment can be added  including changing the surface texture of the sidewalk to emphasize some of the cues blind people use for mobility and orientation. There could be a basket at each end of the walk with white cane's that people could use to experience the change of textures.

The project will not just be the execution of the artwork and the technology for the geocaching, it will be a community outreach effort to gather history about the area and the personalities to include in the artwork, stories and geocaching game. A series of events will be held including  initial kickoff  then a call to artists which will clearly describe what the project can be. During the time of the execution of the work in the field, we will have documentation done by local videographers and the posting on social media. It will conclude with a grand opening of the artwork and the game. Civic engagement Corporation will also develop a walking tour of 13th St. and will offer it as it does other tours on air B&B experience.This project can be repeated in other parts of the city activating the pedestrian environment

Everyone benefits when we create civic engagement such as in this project. Here we have an opportunity for the blind and other disabled leaders and leaders to be, in the project shining a light on the community. Showing that arts, technology, culture, history, community and the built environment can re-create the place and connect people through the experience of that new creation. It will provide other benefits, including economic opportunities and improvements along the street. It will also create crime prevention through community planning. The pedestrian activity stimulated by the project will deter negative energy and bad behavior. There are cities all over the world. Many of them already have stories, including geocaching games. However they may not be accessible to the disabled. This model can be used anywhere in the world. Creating opportunities for the disabled arts culture, history and social and economic stability. Even existing art projects and other cities could be connected in this way.

This project elevates blind people as the ambassadors of mindfulness in their communities, leading and participating in projects like these around the world. Not only will the project be usable universally by all it will be a hero's journey experience for them. A challenge that will leave them elevated like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz when they win the game and go home. They become an example for others to show their true colors be authentic, and create compassion that can be shared. Now, local stories, myths and legends can include blind people as heroes.

One of our previous Board of Directors show me a Facebook post of the project in Chile where they put up tactile displays of some of the street art with the aim of bringing art to all people.  the article did not explain how a blind person would actually find these tactile displays. I played a game called beeper ball both as baseball and soccer where the ball has a beeper in blind people can identify its location from the audible signal.  Then I thought, how would they find their way  to the tactile display where they could hear the beeper.  my blind friends use smart phones and all smart phones accommodate navigation applications. I was familiar with geocaching and realize this could be combined together to make a game. I give walking tours of downtown as a practice in civic engagement we discuss everything related to the built environment, including history and social justice. I realized the murals could be a way to tell the story about our city .  I realize this would be an economic stimulator and could also work to create awareness of how blind people find their way around.

As a blind person, architect, urban farmer and community activist I do have a personal connection to the particular geography, community, and issue.
My purpose is to nurture and educate to be a teacher. As it says in the toa te ching, what is a good man but a bad man's teacher, what is a bad man but a good man's work.
focused on community projects, president of my civic association and ran local business organization. spent time training, my staff along these lines. People asked am i running a school or an architectural firm? As I became legally blind,  I shut my practice down in 2010 to pursue urban sustainable farming where I spent time educating training urban farmers and creating community organizations around local food systems.
while walking with a friend and telling her all about the city. She suggested I give walking tours, and create the awareness and education for others and how paradoxical it would be to have a blind person leading the tour's.  That's when I started civic engagement Corporation. The geocaching place making game for blind people aligns with our mission and vision and will become one of the tools in our toolbox .

The art mural geocaching place making game for the blind is  a social art project. It affects everyone who comes in contact with it. The impact of such a social art project can be perceived differently by individuals. Therefore, developing and engaged constituency is not only important it is a vital component of the project.
As an architect and civic activists  I considered our firm's work  a social art. I felt responsible to see it from the variety of perspectives to engage with each of them and provide an artistically designed response  seen as an enhancement.
My success sustainable urban agriculture included changing county comprehensive plan, city land-use and zoning codes developing a constituency of local food entrepreneurs and sustainable activists based on my experience as a civic leader, architect and what I learned from my daughter regarding the Black Panthers and how they put together a grassroots organization. received the states award for best practice new sustainable business. Established food producing gardens and farms for city of Dania Beach, Miramar, and Fort Lauderdale  many private and nonprofits.  engaged over 2000 people in  Growing Broward, the Broward County food Cooperative Inc.  held 100 gatherings in 3 years.
 local architect with social entrepreneurial skills strong ties to the community, 14 nonprofit advisory boards, uniquely qualified to administer and execute this project.  experienced  establishing strategic plan, schedule  budget and managing  people; volunteers, apprentices and paid professionals. I enjoy creating a model that others can take and repeat within their community or context.

2010  diagnosed "legally blind" with 2% of visual field, effects of retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative disease of the retina. during recession i had no architectural work or prospects.  The Business had no income, lost everything, including the office building to the bank.
I became discouraged and angry with the industry overall which my career had been based. I decided to read the wealth of Nations by Adam Smith to figure out where things went wrong.
I determined the authentic economies are based on agriculture and the stewardship of the land and community associated. small local decentralized farms became my purpose. I engage with others started Broward County food system Cooperative. these years were extremely therapeutic. i was recognized by the The White House city of Fort Lauderdale and the state of Florida and the lighthouse for the blind for my efforts and success.
2015 started transformational journey and awakening. traveled  Central and South America myself, started practicing yoga. tai chi, and Taoism. clients called for architectural services. Peace, love, joy, and abundance filled my life. I was being creative. While in service to others.
start Civic Engagement Corporation create opportunities for blind people to be the ambassadors of mindfulness in the community.

leadership role; Broward County Food System Cooperative/ Growing Broward
In 2010 I started Fort Lauderdale vegetables an urban sustainable farming business, focused on developing a replicable model for South Florida.
regulatory issues needed to be addressed and the fledgling local food industry was having trouble establishing itself. I have studied other local food systems around the country that supported small local farmers and food entrepreneurs. I invited 50 people to my house for lunch to talk about starting a local food Cooperative that establish policy,  create a networked local food industry. It was extremely successful. We had over 100 consecutive meetings in 3 years. Attendance was never less than 30 sometimes as many as 200 for potluck dinners and discussions.
We  participated in the rewriting of the County comprehensive plan and future land use plan to include agricultural uses and opportunities. We change the zoning in the city of Fort Lauderdale and other cities as well to accommodate a variety of agricultural uses.
2011 sustainable Florida small business award for best practices.  2012  received a commendation from the city of Fort Lauderdale.  2016 The sun Sentinel newspaper listed me as one of the top 10 environmentalists in Broward County.

Our project employs age-old techniques of civic engagement,  which have been forgotten or marginalized as not having any value. Such as the concept of a shared myth. The value of the myth, is that it can connect everybody while each person has a  different interpretation and level of belief. Today shared myths are left to religion or other spiritual practices such as yoga and tai chi and the secular world has nothing to share. Myths can be extracted from the history, nature and the built environment. Through these elements, the myth can be unveiled connecting people emotionally through its stories. Allowing them to educate themselves about issues and stories affect them and their community.  communities that attract people because of feelings and compassionate they have for place and its people, have shared myths. They are known not just by the people who lived there and have had a chance to experience the elements of the myth, they can be shared by people who learn about those places, and become a reason for them to visit to explore the origins of the myth.

Our innovation: engaging local artists to create mythical murals of heroes journeys stories that become modern-day cave paintings unveiling the pectoral story the legend and myth, developing interactive place making game that will be activated by blind people and attract others, and by incorporating an emotionally stimulating audible story that will come the spoken word of the myth, blind people create education, awareness and mindfulness in the community.

This may not be a good answer but our project concept does not rely on evidence. Our mission is education and awareness leading to our vision, which is creating mindfulness in the community. I have never seen anything of this projects combination components done anywhere and because these techniques have been used since ancient times, I feel they will work and connect people as they always have.

I enjoyed the myth of the hundred monkey theory and that it only takes a shift of 2% of the community to bring awareness to everyone. I enjoy the myth that I am the source of a transformed world now. In a universe of abundance when we start measuring things we limit opportunity. I learned this when I was in the urban farming business, working with a variety of nonprofits struggling to measure their worthiness and forgetting about the people they serve. I found when I use these techniques in front of people and showed my authenticity without worrying about how it looked. People connected and understood and I created awareness and mindfulness in our community. This may not be the answer to your looking for in this section, and I have witnessed these mythical theories working only all the time.

Civic engagement Corporation is a new nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity and has raised money by giving urban walking tours by blind people and now has this idea to expand into this place making concept that will align with our mission, vision and current activities. We expect to raise money for this project as part of our capital campaign, which is the initial outreach portion of the work. We have had some interest by funders, but the existing blind agencies in the community for which I sat on the boards felt it was a conflict of interest for me to receive money from from donors to their organization. So we are kind looking for fresh opportunities for funding.

Civic engagement Corporation is a new nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity and has raised money by giving urban walking tours by blind people and now has this idea to expand into this place making concept that will align with our mission, vision and current activities. We expect to raise money for this project as part of our capital campaign, which is the initial outreach portion of the work. We have had some interest by funders, but the existing blind agencies in the community for which I sat on the boards felt it was a conflict of interest for me to receive money from from donors to their organization. So we are kind looking for fresh opportunities for funding.

Civic engagement Corporation is a new nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity and has raised money by giving urban walking tours by blind people and now has this idea to expand into this place making concept that will align with our mission, vision and current activities. We expect to raise money for this project as part of our capital campaign, which is the initial outreach portion of the work. We have had some interest by funders, but the existing blind agencies in the community for which I sat on the boards felt it was a conflict of interest for me to receive money from from donors to their organization. So we are kind looking for fresh opportunities for funding.