Just off of Courthouse Square is a small office that has been making some big things happen in the Dayton Region. The Collaboratory serves as Dayton’s Civic Innovation Lab, the brainchild of Peter Benkendorf.
In order to grow the Dayton region’s economic and social capital, the Collaboratory provides the Collaborative Infrastructure—the physical space, portfolio of initiatives, engagement tools and support system—for people from across the region to come together to imagine and act upon new possibilities for themselves, each other and the community, with a particular interest in downtown.
Not unlike the Reference/Help Desk at the Library, people are constantly being directed or finding their way to The Collaboratory. They provide counsel and support in the following areas:
- Visioning: help people think through where they are and where they want to go.
- Planning: help develop action plans to realize the vision.
- Connecting: they help connect individuals with the right people and organizations to help them implement their plans and realize their vision.
In order to keep the Collaboratory running, they’ve launched a month-long crowd-funding campaign, with a goal of $50,000 to help support the development of its new initiatives, which include:
- X FACTOR: Changing the Way the Community Sees Ex-Offenders
- Dayton Regional Solar
- Miami Valley Regional Healthcare
- Legacy Poverty Project
- Impact Dayton
- Regional Purchasing Initiative
- Bloomberg Philanthropies $1 Million Public Art Challenge
- Retirepreneur
- Go-Kart Track on top of the Transportation Center Parking Garage.
On-going initiatives include:
- Dayton Sewing Collaborative
- 3rd Sundays at Front Street Outdoor Market
- Dayton Porchfest
- 721 Springfield Manufacturing Incubator
- Dayton Word Out
- Hosting local and out-of-town artists
Past initiatives include:
- Blue Sky Project
- Ten Living Cities Symposium
- Project 510
- Dayton, Ohio: You Are Here!
- Drum Dayton
- TECH-ARTS Collaboration
- Collaboration Accelerator (now housed at UD
To support the Collaboratory’s crowd funding campaign,
use the Facebook link which has no service fee deducted or through their web site using PayPal .
For more information, visit www.daytoncollaboratory.org
