Toms River Poseidon Speaker To Focus On Building Community

TOMS RIVER, NJ — If you've been looking to get involved in helping to make Toms River a better place to live, whether it's through sustainable environmental initiatives or supporting the arts, the September speaker at the Poseidon Academy T.R.U.S.T Speaker Series will share her thoughts on how to do that.

Kadie Dempsey, who has led community engagement efforts in Morris County, will be speaking on "Creative Placemaking" on Tuesday, Sept. 17. The event begins at 7 p.m. and will be held in the Poseidon Lab, 511 Irons St. It's the white building behind in the parking lot across from the Post Office and behind the Music Academy.

Kadie Dempsey is a partner and the director of Creative Placemaking at Core Creative Placemaking LLC. Prior to founding Core Creative Placemaking, Dempsey was the director of creative placemaking for Morris Arts from March 2002 to August 2017, where she led community engagement efforts for the county’s arts and cultural heritage agency.

"I describe myself as 'someone who connects the dots,' " Dempsey said in a news release. "My goal is to facilitate community engagement in a way that will build on what is already taking place and to teach people how to identify the leadership qualities within their own teams and communities."

"My experience has given me a deep understanding of how successful communities are built," she said.

In addition to her work with the Morris County arts community, Dempsey is a member of the advisory committee for both the National and New Jersey Consortium for Creative Placemaking and a member of the arts taskforce of Sustainable New Jersey.

She has a master practitioner certification in Creative Placemaking from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, which she earned in 2013.

Space is limited. Free tickets are available via Eventbrite.

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