The Neighborhood Design Center hosted our first annual The Vision is Yours, a regional placemaking and placekeeping conference, at Joe’s Movement Emporium in Mt. Rainier, MD.
Held June 5–6, 2025, the event brought together partners from across the region to explore collaborative approaches to shaping vibrant, community-led spaces.
Thank you to everyone who showed up—fully, generously, and with open minds and hearts. We gathered in a time of uncertainty, when the resources we need to do this work can feel scarce. And yet, what this community continues to show is that when material resources thin out, social capital steps in.
We build power in relationships. We find clarity in dialogue. And we move forward — together — by asking the hard questions.
Over two days, we heard bold ideas and witnessed creative sparks fly:
Lasting impact through hands-on learning and collaboration.
The Vision is Yours engaged community partners in Mount Rainier in pursuit of high priority projects in public spaces, while offering forum attendees valuable hands-on implementation experiences. Each of the legacy projects advanced components of Mount Rainier Elementary Schools Sustainable Campus Toolkit, which was developed by the school in 2019 in collaboration with an NDC pro bono design team.
Native Pollinator Garden
Invasive removal, native planting and low-maintenance greening to beautify the Mount Rainier Elementary School Reading Garden while contributing to local ecology.
Creative Seating
Establishing an inviting environment and improve the functionality of the reading garden for teachers, students, and other visitors.
Art in the Right of Way
Demonstration mural on Bunker Hill Road across from Joe’s Movement Emporium to build momentum, buy-in, and community feedback for a permanent traffic-calming artwork to improve safety conditions for pickup during after school programs.
Placemaking is not something we deliver—it’s something we practice together.
That’s what this forum was about: field building not as an abstract aim, but as a lived, collective act. A space to expand our tools, forge new alliances, and name the challenges we face out loud.
In the opening plenary, Marcus Monroe offered us the idea of place sharing—a call to reject scarcity and control, and to instead embrace shared stewardship and co-authorship of our environments. It’s a powerful reframe.
KEY SPEAKERS INCLUDED:
Bree Jones
Bree Jones, founder of Parity Homes, delivered the keynote with a story that goes to the heart of what this forum is all about: community, ‘can do it-ness,’ and the long game of repair.
In West Baltimore, Parity is working block by block, not just to renovate abandoned houses, but to build something far more powerful—collective ownership, deep-rooted trust, and a vision for the future shaped by the people who’ve always called it home. Jones will speak to the realities of doing this kind of slow, place-based work in a system designed for speed and extraction—and why centering community isn’t a strategy, it’s the point.
Cat Goughnour
Cat Goughnour, Assistant Secretary for Just Communities, Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development introduced Just Communities, a new state initiative grounded in the principles of spatial justice. Born from recent legislation, this program acknowledges the long histories of racialized displacement, disinvestment, exclusionary policies and structural inequality that have shaped Maryland ’s built environment—and begins the work of repair. In this presentation, Goughnour outlined how Just Communities aims to shift power, resources, and decision-making toward the communities most impacted by these legacies, and how state-level tools can support locally rooted, equity-driven development.
Participants left the forum not just with new ideas, but with renewed energy, deeper connections, and a few new phone numbers in your pocket.
We hope the conversations sparked here continue to echo—across projects, neighborhoods, and networks. There’s real work ahead, and real momentum too.
Prince George’s Suite Magazine & Media wrote about the forum here in their piece titled “A Blueprint for Belonging: “The Vision is Yours” Forum Reimagines Public Spaces Through Community-Led Action.”
Relive some of the moments—or see what you missed—through our event photo gallery.
Eager for more? Check out the full archive of event sessions, workshops, and celebrations:
Resources
Maryland DHCD Just Communities Resources
Build Day Resources
Thank you to everyone who pitched in on the build day activities! We completed new furnishings and native garden planting for the Mount Rainer ES Children’s Reading Garden. It was a joyful and productive day as we came together to enhance the beauty and usability of this local park.
Thank you to our partners and sponsors!
Steering Committee
Build Day Partners
Participating Sites
