Download the Spring 2008 Rappahannock County Clarion (4.0 MB pdf)

What's your story about Rappahannock? One woman whose family has lived here for five generations tells about a powerful experience she felt celebrating Holy Communion at Mary's Rock. Another resident talks about returning to his family's land after decades of working at other careers so he could pursue his long-deferred dream of farming.

This is the start of the Story Project-a unique approach to community land-use planning that uses the age-old practice of telling and listening to stories to bring people together. Over the next year, 400 to 500 Rappahannock citizens from all walks of life will join in small story circles or participate in one-on-one interviews to talk about their experience of this place. These stories will serve as the basis for our community's revision of the Rappahannock County Comprehensive Plan, which sets the course for all local policy.

"The Comprehensive Plan affects everybody and it should represent everybody," says Julie Portman, whose work leading Life Stories workshops through the Ki Theatre in Washington led to her idea of a story-gathering process that will serve as a bridge between people's lives and public policy. "The questions we are asking, although they're not policy questions at all, really bring forward the values that people hold here in the County," she says. "And those values dramatically affect policy."

While political discussions tend to reinforce people's differences, Portman says, telling and listening to stories can bring people together-causing us to discover what we share and motivating us to find solutions to each other's problems. "A lot of people don't even know that their neighbors love this place," Portman says. "There are a lot of people who don't understand how much how many people love this place." Through stories, people will express what they want to uphold about the County, and they will also address challenges such as creating opportunities for young people or finding affordable housing.

Four partners-the County government, the Rappahannock County Library, Ki Theatre and the Piedmont Environmental Council-are leading an outreach effort through a network of community groups in order to achieve the widest possible diversity of participation. At the conclusion of the process, a documentary DVD will be produced and a community-wide event will celebrate Rappahannock's stories. For more information about the Story Project, call Don Loock at PEC's Washington office (540.987.9441).