John McKnight And Peter Block

John L. McKnight was raised a traveling Ohioan, having lived in seven neighborhoods and small towns in the eighteen years before he left to attend Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois. There, he had the good fortune to be educated by a faculty dedicated to preparing students for effective citizenship. He graduated into the U.S. Navy, where he had three years of “postgraduate” education in Asia during the Korean War. More... Peter Block was born in Chicago and spent most of his early years in the Midwest. After college, he went to New Jersey and was involved in the early days of creating the field of organization development. This entailed some years at Exxon Research and Engineering Company and then the formation of a consulting firm with Tony Petrella. Marvin Weisbord joined in 1971, and the firm did pretty well until, Block says, “we all got into our sixties and either retired or moved in other directions.” More...
3 POSTS

The Abundant Communities Initiative

Conversation with John, Peter and Howard Lawrence: The Abundant Communities Initiative Download or listen to John and Peter's conversation with Howard Lawrence of Edmonton, Alberta’s Abundant Communities Initiative. An ordained minister, neighborhood consultant and active volunteer with Edmonton’s Highlands Community leadership, Howard...

From Charity to Empowerment: Interview with Mike Mather of Indianapolis’s Broadway UMC

Conversation with John, Peter and Mike Mather: From Charity to Empowerment Download or listen to John and Peter's conversation with Mike Mather, the pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis. Their conversation centered on what truly innovative institutions can do to make the...

Occupying a Different Community Space

“Health happens in neighborhoods, not doctors’ offices,” says Dr. Richard J. Jackson, professor and chairman of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, in a forthcoming public television series on ways to redesign the built environment...