John McKnight is emeritus professor of education and social policy and codirector of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University. He is the coauthor of Building Communities from the Inside Out and the author of The Careless Society. He has been a community organizer and serves on the boards of several national organizations that support neighborhood development.
The article below concludes Nonprofit Quarterly's series—Narratives to Build Collective Economic Power—which NPQ is publishing in partnership with the national racial...