● Build your community and create active supporters of the project; word can spread fast, especially about a unique project. Having active supporters will help create a buzz about the project and will bring about connections and partnership opportunities that otherwise might not have been thought of. ● Be prepared for push back as some people might not understand the concept or see its value. Try to get people excited about the project in whatever way feels natural. ● Attempt to make it as accessible to everyone; talk to necessary local community members with different accessibility needs for how to make it as accessible as possible. If you are looking to build a community oven on public land, it will be important to reach out to the town, municipality, or community early on. Depending on where you are in the process, you can get letters of support first or follow up after making initial contact. Having letters of support and names to mention is a good idea if possible as it shows that research has already been done and there is community buy-in. Below is a list of some of who were contacted at the beginning stages of the Front Street Oven: ● Wolfville Farmers’ Market ● Library ● Acadia University ● Wolfville Business Development Corporation ● Blomidon Naturalist Society ● Canadian Mental Health Association Community Development Patterns We were lucky to have Community Facilitator and Business Counselor, Anne Stieger, on our team as she introduced us to patterns of success research in social entrepreneurship and community development, which made everything easier. We used some of the patterns in the Social Enterprises Akademie deck ( https://pattern-publishing.de/social-entrepreneurship-von-der-idee-zur-umsetzung-en ) that Anne developed and some patterns that haven’t been published yet to guide our actions. They were sort of a ‘mentor in our pocket’ as they were based on successful social enterprises around the world. We do not have permission to share the full patterns at this time, so we’ll just list the names of the patterns and how we used them in our context below. Here are a few key success patterns that helped us along the way: ● Know your ecosystem . For us this meant contacting potential partners, businesses, the mayor and town councillors and sending our 2-pager to ask for their advice. We also offered to meet them in person or have a voice/video conversation. (Food and Safety, Town council, by-law officer, etc.) Essentially, we introduced ourselves, let them know the general idea, and asked their advice. Get them on your side. ● Ask for advice, get money; ask for money, get advice. People want to be a part of something and have their investment mean something. So for funders and sponsors, we both asked for advice and how they might want to collaborate. By asking for advice first, people get invested in the idea, want to help, and then are more likely to contribute resources. We also think it’s just the respectful and helpful thing to do to connect first at a human level rather than at a transaction level. ● Make the mayor look good . Mayor and town councillors became advocates of the project early on because we shared the idea with them and asked for their advice. We also filmed a video with our mayor, discussing the project, and he publicly endorsed it. This gave us initial credibility and helped to promote the oven as the mayor continues to support the project and mentions it to people he sees in his travels around town. ● Connection first . We build true partnerships and everything runs easier if at the beginning of meetings you connect as humans first, before discussing business. When we first started, we would ask partners and sponsors: What intrigues you about the project? What would you like to try cooking in it? Who would you bring with you to the oven? ● Be a hub . A physical hub, online hub, knowledge hub. We selected the location for the oven by choosing one of the busiest walking areas in town. The oven is beside the library, on a path from downtown to the 5
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