The Orton Family Foundation’s upcoming conference, CommunityMatters10, takes place October 5th – 8th in Denver, Colorado. Click here for more information and to register.

CommunityMatters is an interactive exchange for individuals and organizations working to engage citizens and build strong, vibrant communities from the ground up. CommunityMatters fuels a growing network of leaders, thinkers and doers in a variety of disciplines—planning, sustainability, health, democracy, education, economic development and the arts.

CommunityMatters is a project of the Orton Family Foundation, in collaboration with other partners.

In addition to registering for the CommunityMatters10 conference, consider submitting an entry in the Strong Communities Competition. Finalists will be showcased at CommunityMatters10, and the top 3 entries will win $5,000 each.

Submissions will be accepted from June 16 to August 11, 2010 at www.changemakers.com/strongcommunities. Here’s a bit more info about the Strong Communities competition…

CommunityMatters, in partnership with Ashoka’s Changemakers, has launched Strong Communities: Engaging Citizens, Strengthening Place , Inspiring Change, an online competition to find the best ways for citizens to connect and work to build vibrant, enduring places.

The vitality and quality of life in many small towns and urban neighborhoods is threatened by rampant, unsustainable growth. Other communities struggle economically and face serious challenges like unemployment, homelessness and substandard education.

When citizens rise to meet these challenges with creative solutions, leadership and collaboration, their communities thrive. Ashoka’s Changemakers and CommunityMatters, a project of the Orton Family Foundation, invite solutions that apply interdisciplinary approaches in which different people, organizations and fields join together and learn from each other to collectively solve problems.

Eight Strong Communities competition finalists will be invited to attend the CommunityMatters’10 Conference in Denver , October 5-8, 2010 to showcase their work and collaborate with other leaders in the field.