The Camp House

One of the little known branches of our city government is the Office of Multicultural Affairs. James McKissic has been the Director of the office for nearly four years and in that time the department has become more active in the community. In this episode, James shares the vision of the department and how they work to make Chattanooga a more equitable place for all of our city's diverse cultural...

Hal Bowling is a co-founder of LAUNCH, an organization created to help bridge the gap between the entrepreneurial eco-system of our city and those who have been traditional left out of the story. Starting in Alton Park six years ago, the mission of LAUNCH is to empower underserved communities and individuals through entrepreneurship. In this episode we discuss the history of LAUNCH and how it help...

Fred Fletcher was given a task when he was sworn in as the Chief of Police of the Chattanooga Police Department in 2004: create a culture of community policing and incorporate best practices in order to make Chattanooga a safer community, for everyone . In today's interview we discuss what community policing is and how it is not just a buzz word for our police department, but a guiding philosophy....

This is the second half of our conversation about Causeway with Executive Director Abby Garrison. In the first half we discussed the vision and history of Causeway and in this episode we get into the programming of the organization and the innovative ways that they empower community members to help solve the various challenges in our city. In this episode we really try to highlight to key events t...

Causeway is one of the most progressive and interesting non-profits in Chattanooga. Started by a group of entrepreneurs, Causeway has always valued supporting people willing to solve the problems and challenges they see in their own communities. In this first episode, Executive Director Abby Garrison explains a little of the history and evolution of Causeway from a non-profit, tech focused startup...

Did you know we have a National Park right here in our city? Right here in the middle of Chattanooga? If you live or work downtown my guess is that you will see it or pass by it today. And yet, when you hear mention of Moccasin Bend your first thought is probably not "National Park". But the truth is that just across the river is one of the most historically rich pieces of land in the en...

This episode is part two of our StartUp Week Chattanooga preview focusing on the Co. Starter's Summit. Co. Starters is an organization that exists to help you get your idea off the ground and guide people through the landscape of entrepreneurship and business. It is also much more than that. But it is also so much more than that. Listen in as two of Co. Starters founders, Enoch Elwell and Will Jos...

Fall is one of the busiest seasons in Chattanooga with incredible events like Ironman, 3 Sisters Bluegrass Festival, RiverRox, & a week long celebration of entrepreneurship, innovation, and ideas: StartUp Week! In this episode I sat down with Lamp Post Group's Stephanie Hayes to preview SOME of the events happening from Oct. 3rd - 7th. This year is bigger and better than ever with approximatel...

Glass Street LIVE is a community wide block party on Glass Street on Saturday, September 24th presented by the residents of East Chattanooga and organized by our good friends at Glass House Collective. Listen in to hear a preview of the event and come out an enjoy a day of parade, art, music, and history on Glass Street! Event link: http://bit.ly/2dclEgq Referenced in this episode: Glass House Col...

This past summer the Chattanooga City Council passed a document that will literally shape our city's future, the new Form Based Code. Breaking away from a coding system that was created in the 1950s to support the development of suburbs, the new Form Based Code is the result of community vision for more than a decade. In the Downtown Plan of 2005 and the City Center Plan of 2013 we dreamed about t...

TechTown is a new non-profit technology center located right here in Chattanooga. Cordell Carter is the CEO & Executive Director of TechTown. In this episode Cordell shares the vision behind this new organization to be a place that equips and inspires the youth of our city to be the next generation innovators and entrepreneurs that will carry our city forward into the future. One of the bigges...

This is the second half of our conversation about the future of Miller Park, Miller Plaza, & Patten Parkway. In our first episode we talked about the vision for these downtown spaces and the process that went into the new design. In today's episode landscape architect Wes Michaels details the design elements in each space and gives us an audio tour of our future urban core. So open the Miller...

The future of Chattanooga's city center will look very different. By 2018 the number of people residing in our downtown will have doubled and the public spaces that we take for granted will be completely transformed. In today's episode we sit down with Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, Landscape Architect Wes Michaels, & City of Chattanooga's Jenny Park to discuss the vision for the future of our...

Teacherpreneur is a program to empower teachers to solve the biggest challenges they face in their classrooms and schools. Modeled after Co. Lab's 48 Hour Launch event, Teacherpreneur helps teachers take a big idea and mold it into a basic model that they can then "pitch" to the community. Oh, and its all within 48 hours... In today's podcast we learn more about the program from Public E...

How do we bring life back into the forgotten spaces of our urban landscape? In this episode we sit down with River City Company's Amy Donahue to learn more about River City Company and preview their latest project, Passageways, a design competition in partnership with the Tennessee chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The purpose of Passageways is to "re-imagine Chattanooga’s alle...

In this episode Joda and I dive into the heart of their policy recommendations for education finance in Hamilton County. The conversation primarily revolves around Student-Based Budgeting, an approach to education finance that shifts the focus away from programs and onto students. We also explore the need to empower principals and the importance of communication in building trust between instituti...

Metro Ideas Project is a new public policy think tank focused on mid-sized cities created here in Chattanooga. In this episode we talk about the new think tank and the vision to explore the contextual challenges faced by growing urban areas as well as open the discussion on their first project, education finance in Hamilton County. Understandably, our education budget is complex but it is also the...

Ask Christian Rushing how he is doing and I can promise you he will say "Living the dream!". Seventeen months ago Christian was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Despite that, Christian is one of the most radiant people you will ever have the pleasure to meet. And so far Christian has defied the odds. The doctors gave him a year to live and up to this point Christian has pushed the l...

What do our public spaces say about us? How does the design of the places we inhabit shape our imaginations and lived experiences? Christian Rushing has a background in architecture but ultimately fell in love with urban planning, the process of designing cities and public spaces for the common good. At one time Christian was part of the Downtown Planning & Design Studio and is now the Executi...

Jared Bigham is the coordinator of Chattanooga 2.0, a new county wide effort to examine our education and career readiness pipeline. As Jared describes, Chattanooga 2.0 is a cradle-to-career initiative. This is the second part of our interview with Jared Bigham. Resources and organizations referenced in the interview: Chattanooga 2.0 - http://chatt2.org/ Chattanooga 2.0 Report - http://www.pefchat...

Jared Bigham is the coordinator of Chattanooga 2.0, a new county wide effort to examine our education and career readiness pipeline. As Jared describes, Chattanooga 2.0 is a cradle-to-career initiative. This is the first part of our interview with Jared Bigham. Rather than releasing Part 2 next week, we will instead release it on Thursday. Resources and organizations referenced in the interview: C...

A brief introduction of the new Camp House Podcast and a preview of our first episode.