The presidential race in 2012 is increasing attention and interest in local economies and small business. So far the debate has focused on perceived economic drivers such as tax incentives and an educated workforce. These have their place, but...
The McLaughlin Neighborhood in Muskegon, MI is using Asset Based Community Development approaches to transform their community.
“It’s been about creating relationships, neighborhood to neighbor,” says Sarah Rinsema-Sybenga, Executive Director of Community enCompass, a Christian community development organization in...
Community is not just for extroverts.
For thousands of years, our ancestors lived in barrios, hamlets, neighborhoods, and villages. Yet in the time since our parents and grandparents were young, privacy has become so valued that many neighborhoods are not...
New City Neighbors of Grand Rapids, MI invented an engaging summer program for community youth: The Breaktime Bakery.
Started in the summer of 2006, the bakery teaches 6th through 8th grade students basic job skills like showing up on time,...
Caring for our community and convening citizens to care for their community is difficult work. We are working against the whole tide of the dominant culture which worships individualism, self-interest, and competition. As a culture, we collectively hold the...
Suppose that instead of focusing on the functions and actions of leaders, we reconstruct our basic notion of leadership? Suppose we drew more on Sophia, the Old Testament model of wisdom and gifts of the feminine?
This article from imagineONE...
PlacerSustain is a 501(c)(3) non-profit located in Placer County, California, that stewards the creation of social capital at the grass roots level to create a sustainable future—helping people help themselves through sharing, connecting, collaborating and taking cooperative action. PlacerSustain...
Abundant communities start with making visible the gifts of everyone in the neighborhood—the families, the young people, the old people, the vulnerable people, the troublesome people. Everyone. We do this not out of altruism, but to create the elements...