CBEL Says it in Video

Written by Tim Buckley, July 2024

If you want to create a buzz with your song lyrics, poem or newsletter, it helps if you have a compelling story. That isn’t all. Teachers of literary arts will often say, “Show, don’t tell.”

The buzz about CBEL’s novel approach to community development has largely been driven by personal sharing. Word of mouth has helped to swell the number of attendees at Fun Friday events in the neighborhoods, for example. The same is true with CBEL’s Collaborative events, where the experience of making connections while learning from national-caliber presenters has been inspiring and stimulating.

Take a look at the new CBEL video which will help extend the buzz further. Produced by Stephen Custer (Dry Humor Marketing), the five-minute introduction to CBEL’s Building Community Resilience showcases the work of neighbors in the Hallman-Northgate area who have transformed themselves into an effective vehicle for positive change and leadership development. Below, a part of the block-long mural that now graces the Northgate Park fence.

The video was completed in the spring of this year to become a cornerstone for CBEL’s new outreach effort. CBEL staff and volunteers will be scheduling presentations with community organizations to help spread the news about the four active CBEL Neighborhood Family Councils, and plans to expand that number to eight more this year.

“If neighbors in four, five, and six distinct parts of our city show how grass roots empowerment creates impressive improvements in safety, civic involvement, upward mobility and hope, the whole city of Salem and Keizer will begin to feel that positive change,” said Jim Seymour, director of the CBEL project, funded by Mountain West Investment’s Center for Community Excellence.