Association

"We aim to be the first neighborhood where every child and the neighborhood are thriving because, together as neighbors, we are following the lead of NEIGHBORKIDS." That’s the thinking behind the Sarasota Community Studio, opened in the Florida city’s Central-Cocoanut neighborhood...

These days, the big issues of our time are digested and disseminated by cable news, internet blogs, and tweets—and repeated by everyday people in our common conversations. But the choices about how that digestion happens—about how big stories are...

John tells a story to show the difference between the world of facts, data, systematic information and the community's way of knowing: the story. And the most important thing in strong communities is having true stories, stories that match our experience.    

Pushing my grocery cart down the aisle, I spot on the fruit counter a dozen plastic bags of bananas labeled “Organic, Equal Exchange.” My heart leaps a little. I’d been thrilled, months earlier, when I found my local grocer...

The challenge of modern life seems to be to learn how to cope with paradox and the sense of crazy-making it can produce. News reports are filled with horrendous tales that portray the most unpredictable elements of nature and...

Last week, I drove with friends and colleagues from Indianapolis to Cincinnati to attend the three-day Connecting4Community (“C4C”) conference, “a powerful gathering of master and apprentice change agents and social entrepreneurs across sectors and communities, from around the world.” I came for...

When residents are genuinely at the center of community building, a different process unfolds. Relationships become the centerpiece of the work. This is because for residents community building is personal — it’s about their children, their families, their homes, their neighbors and their streets. It...

Download or listen to John and Peter's April 16 conversation with Tom Dewar on different ways of thinking about what local initiatives mean and how to support them. Tom is the co-director of the Aspen Institute’s Roundtable on Community Change.As a...