December 5 2012, a new independent media project was launched on Facebook.

Lawrence Vision aims to provide a source for news, ideas, perspectives, events and discussion oriented towards what we all have in common: a vision of Lawrence and the world that's thriving, sustainable, and more democratic.

There are well over 20 community groups in Lawrence that are working towards this vision, collectively representing several thousand people, including public servants working at City Hall, local business leaders, teachers, students, gardeners, parents and a whole long list of diverse Lawrence residents.

This is an experiment in democratic, community-powered media, and it will become what we make it. No one is in charge and everyone can provide leadership. We will continually be adding new voices as time goes on, since no one person knows everyone who might want to add their voice as an admin.

If you represent a group and are not yet an admin and would like to be one, leave a comment below or send our Facebook page a message.

If you have a local event or article you want to share, post it on our wall and an admin can re-share it.

Here are the three guidelines for admins:

• Try to wait at least 45-60 minutes after the last post to post something new.
• Generally be mindful of how often you're posting. If lots of people are posting, post less. If posting is slow on a day or week, post more often. Ideally everyone will post a couple times a week to maximize the diversity of perspectives.
• Everyone is a leader of the group, can add new admins and can promote the page

What types of content can you expect from this page?

- local social change/community building events
- op-eds by local writers on local issues
- local news or updates on local group activities and efforts
- national news, op-eds, videos or articles on issues that have been ignored or under-covered by the mainstream media

What kind of themes will we be focusing on?

-stories (any article or video) covering the progress of social & environmental movements

- stories that focus on the root problems that affect social progress and the main bottlenecks impeding change

- stories that focus on the root solutions that will break the bottlenecks, getting right to the root of problems

- stories about people living and building the world they want, now

- stories that are fairly non-partisan and avoids unnecessary antagonism, divisionary rhetoric, fear-mongering, hype, etc

- stories that expand our ability to experience universal empathy and compassion for all people and the planet, and avoids appeals that reinforce artificial divisions (including nationality, political affiliation, race, culture, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, immigrant status, etc)

- stories that offer a fresh or alternative perspective that steps outside of the established "frames" of debate

- stories that focus on solutions and ideas for positive action to make Lawrence and the world a better place



An incomplete list of Lawrence groups:
http://lawrence.filmsforaction.org/groups/

Add your group to the directory:
http://lawrence.filmsforaction.org/add/group/

Does an article you wrote or you'd like to write need a home? Add it here:
http://lawrence.filmsforaction.org/add/blog/

Add Lawrence events here:
http://lawrence.filmsforaction.org/add/event/

Vision Statement

We believe we have a historic opportunity to develop the foresight and vision necessary to make Lawrence a sustainable, thriving, ecological city. We believe that the leadership for this movement will come from the bottom up, and that the solutions necessary to make this happen already exist. Whether here in Lawrence, in Curitiba, Brazil, or in Samso, Sweden – solutions already exist. They are in development all over the world, by millions of people and thousands of organizations.

Indeed, we are a movement millions strong, but this movement has no name, no “ism” to tie us all together. There is no single manifesto that articulates our vision in a single language. In its place we have a thousand different ways of articulating this vision, spoken in the words of every language. However, the vision we share of a better future is common. We just need to connect the dots.

Lawrence Vision is not the solution itself. It is the means to help realize this vision in tangible form, here in our own city, in our own particular place. It is the compass, the binoculars, the hiking shoes, and the walking stick that will help us get there.

Lawrence Vision hopes to represent the diversity of individuals and groups within Lawrence who share this common vision of what Lawrence could be.

A List of Facebook Pages to Like:

Occupy Lawrence

Madre Lawrence

Lawrence Police Watch

KU Center for Sustainability

Sustainability Action Network

Transition Kaw Valley

A List of Facebook Groups to Join:

Lawrence Coalition for Peace & Justice

Move to Amend Lawrence, KS

Films For Action Lawrence, KS

Lawrence Fair Food

Lawrence Food Not Bombs

Really, Really, Free Market

Transition in Action

Four Winds Community Garden

Occupy KU

Lawrence Conscious Parenting Initiative

Suggest more pages and groups in the comments below and they will be added here.