Today - June 18th, 2013

    10 Ways to Create Community Where You Live10 Ways to Create Community Where You Live

    By Ross Chapin

    How to build community here and now — because neighborhoods are more than houses in proximity.


    The Economy: Under New OwnershipThe Economy: Under New Ownership

    By Marjorie Kelly

    The deep redesign of our economy isn’t beginning in Washington, D.C. It is rooted in relationships: to the living earth and to one another. It’s about a shift from dominion to community.

     


    Harnessing and Harvesting “The Ignorant Perfection of Ordinary People”Harnessing and Harvesting “The Ignorant Perfection of Ordinary People”

    By April Doner

    The first of a series on the learning, challenges and opportunities seen at Connecting4Community to shift to more citizen-centered, bottom-up ways of living and structuring our approaches to the problems we see around us.

    Learn What's Working …
    Resident-Centered Community Building: What Makes It Different?Resident-Centered Community Building: What Makes It Different?

    by The Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, The Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change

    "This is the first report that I have ever read that really feels 'community friendly,'" says Roque Barrios of San Diego. He's talking about the story of how local community building leaders came together to share strategies and discuss lessons learned about how to improve conditions in disadvantaged communities.…

    Green Housing: In Buffalo, It's Not Just for Rich People AnymoreGreen Housing: In Buffalo, It's Not Just for Rich People Anymore

    by Mark Andrew Boyer

    Can we build sustainable housing that's affordable, too? The city of Buffalo did, and created a community jobs pipeline in the process. Here's what can happen when neighborhoods take the lead.…

    Why Unions Are Going Into the Co-op BusinessWhy Unions Are Going Into the Co-op Business

    by Amy Dean

    From a food hub to industrial manufacturing to a commercial laundry and more, the United Steelworkers are experimenting with a new business model that invests in workers and invests in communities.…

    How to Use Local Assets to Make Your Community EffectiveHow to Use Local Assets to Make Your Community Effective

    by Peter Block, Mary Nelson

    Highlights from Peter and John's March 5 online/dial-up conversation with Mary Nelson, the founder and longtime Director of Bethel New Life, one of the nation's best neighborhood development organizations.…

    Won't You Be My Neighbor?Won't You Be My Neighbor?

    by Nancy Sleeth

    "Almost Amish" tips for supporting your local economy and building community with your neighbors.…

    The Neighbor ProjectThe Neighbor Project

    by Raechel Dawson

    Rodney Rutherford created a comfortable place for neighbors to come together and share their perspectives, knowledge and gifts. All it took was some gift-mindedness and a coffee machine.…

    Growing Global Divisiveness Gets DisruptedGrowing Global Divisiveness Gets Disrupted

    by Michelle Strutzenberger

    Ian Edwards discovers how three-person conversations can open space for creativity, build trusting relationships and counter the divisiveness we see every day.…

    Three Steps to Building a Better BlockThree Steps to Building a Better Block

    by Jason Roberts

    How can we drive change in our communities and move past stagnant committees and outdated regulation? Jason Roberts of Build a Better Block encourages us to stop waiting around. Even if that means painting in our own crosswalks and blackmailing ourselves into action…

    A Gift from a Taxi DriverA Gift from a Taxi Driver

    by Gerard Ee

    A young boy experiences community and the love that flows from it when a Singapore taxi driver sings "Jingle Bells."…

    The Neighborhood EffectThe Neighborhood Effect

    by Prucia Buscell

    The degree to which people trust and help each other may have more to do with a neighborhood's health and economic survival than indicators like income and foreclosure rates.…

    Recent Posts
    A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life

    Jill J. Jensenby Jill J. Jensen

    Margaret Mead is not the only person to recognize that the way the world changes is through individual acts and the efforts of small groups of committed people. Parker Palmer has long helped us search for ways to give a life meaning and to change the world.…

    Sensible Life ~ A Thought

    John McKnightby John McKnight

    John reminds us that relationships in a personal world are the antidote to following the siren call of progress in a tool-ruled world.…

    Seeing Blue

    Edd Conboyby Edd Conboy

    Having to stand in line for this service or that program is one of the most powerful reinforcers of the scarcity mindset. It symbolizes helplessness, hopelessness and the constant concern that there is not enough ... and that it will run out just before it is my turn. Edd Conboy is doing something about that.…

    Measuring and Evaluating Community Initiatives

    Peter Blockby Peter Block, Tom Dewar

    Highlights from Peter's April 16 online/dial-up conversation with Tom Dewar, co-director of the Aspen Institute’s Roundtable on Community Change and long-time member of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute.…

    Flying Down

    John McKnightby John McKnight

    John reminds us that progress is not all that it seems.…

    "The Well" ~ A Symbol of Healthy Community

    Jeffrey Bordelonby Jeffrey Bordelon

    The I Ching reading "The Well" is a symbol of community and offers a powerful expression of what a healthy and sustainable community could look like.…

    Modern Mentoring

    John McKnightby John McKnight

    In response to a neighborhood’s concern about youth problems and violence, John takes a gifts-minded look at how to connect young people to productive adults and offer a means to express their own constructive capacities.…

    Love Letters to Strangers

    Hannah Brencherby Hannah Brencher

    Hannah Brencher believes in the power of pen and paper, so she started a community that encourages strangers to exchange love letters.…

    The Stranger

    John McKnightby John McKnight

    The full meaning of what it means to be a hospitable neighborhood and how our lives are enriched by welcoming people we don't know into our community.…