Abundant Community

34 POSTS

From Backyard Lettuce to “Learning Garden” Sweet Potatoes

Joan Horwitt’s first idea was to have Ashlawn Elementary School students, teachers and neighbors grow lettuce and greens at their homes and at the school in Arlington, VA. The former Arlington County teacher, school volunteer and Washington Post dining columnist...

Christmas 2011 — Birth of a New Tradition

  An anonymous email making its way around the Web and into inboxes these last few weeks echoes many of John and Peter’s thoughts on finding a life of abundance “within walking distance.” Searches for the author of the piece...

Sweet Potatoes Newest Star of Lawns 2 Lettuce 4 Lunch

Remember Lawns 2 Lettuce 4 Lunch, the Arlington, VA-area initiative founded by Joan Horwitt to promote home-grown healthy foods? It was sweet potatoes harvested by Ashlawn students that starred in Ashlawn Elementary School’s school lunch event in early November. The tubers...

Elementz: A Place for Hip Hop and Respect

Cincinnati teens learn creativity at Elementz by telling their stories through the music, poetry/rap, dance and graffiti/visual arts of hip hop culture. Their Fall 2011 digital newsletter tells the stories of the Elementz Fundraiser at Cincinnati’s Freedom Center, Elementz at...

Bring & Fix

Imagine a “gifts fair” where neighbors share their knowledge and skills with their neighbors. Need a garment hemmed? Want some help preparing a presentation? Looking for gardening advice? Getting people together to work on anything from fixing a flat bicycle...

Small Steps to Creating Community

Check out Good Tree Village Cohousing's blog at http://goodtreevillage.org/2011/11/20/small-steps-to-creating-community/. A recent post features a 100 neighbors website and a story on neighbors who connected their yards to create an urban oasis as two small and effective ways of building community. Photo: Good Tree...

Little Free Library

A cool and powerful idea is spreading from its small beginning in Hudson WI to neighborhoods from Brooklyn to Sacramento, Portland to New Orleans. It’s called Little Free Library, and there’s even a Little Free Library in Hamburg, Germany...

From the “Conversation with John and Peter: Occupy Wall Street–An Opening for Abundance” October 18, 2011

Links Alternative currency Definition: Alternative currency Video: Alternative Currencies: A True Story Groups and websites (asset-based community development, transition initiatives, etc.) www.ABCDinAction.ning.com www.abcdinstitute.org http://www.communitysolution.org/ http://www.powerofcommunity.org/ http://transitionus.org/ http://www.transitionnetwork.org/ YES! Magazine Books Mark Anielski The Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2007 Rob Hopkins The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience White River...

A Message from Occupy Wall Street

Even if the protesters were able to narrow their concerns to one, easily defined goal, some organizers say that would miss the point. David Graeber, one of the original organizers of the protests, told The Washington Post that making demands of institutions...

Recommended from the “Conversation with John and Peter: The Future of Families” September 6, 2011

John McKnight Exemplary Materials for Designing a Community Building Initiative in a Neighborhood      (Evanston, IL: Asset Based Community Development Institute, 2011) Materials developed cooperatively by The Woodlawn Organization, a Chicago neighborhood organization, and the Asset Based Community Development Institute of Northwestern...