Raising Children

Modern culture has instilled in most of us an unchecked reverence for the idea of independence. It is a celebrated sign of maturity and accomplishment. A promised path to freedom, and a signal that we have arrived. Soulful teachers,...

The Dutch Association of Mayors invited me, as a representative of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute, to visit their 20 largest cities and share an asset-based approach with neighborhood leaders in each city. In one of the first cities I...

An urban neighborhood strengthens its community by asking unexpected questions The Learning Tree initiative takes a different route to enhancing community by focusing on talents and gifts — not poverty.   When faced with an inability to pay their rent, mortgage or...

Where lies the passage out of an economic and social system rooted in the illusion scarcity and competition, and into a system of living grounded in the reality of abundance and cooperation? Economist Dr. Olivia Saunders invites us to...

  GREENSBURG, Ind. — A rural city in southeastern Indiana has piqued the interest of hundreds of families considering a move there after it offered stand-in ”grandparents” to babysit their children as part of an incentive program aimed at attracting...

"200,000 Indianapolis residents live in food deserts. Low income communities of color are the most impacted by lack of access to fresh food. But communities are responding to these challenges by creating and controlling their own food destinies." So begins...

In 2011, parents in the Richmond, VA community of Hillside Court locked their children inside to protect them from rampant gun violence. Today the neighborhood is bustling with activities for citizens of all ages because a group of concerned citizens...

Westwood Unidos was a successful example of organizing residents to achieve health equity in a historically disinvested, working-class, predominantly Latino neighborhood. Formed in 2012 in Denver, Colorado, Westwood Unidos (WU) utilized an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) community organizing approach...

As we look to the abundance within neighborhoods waiting to come alive, one of the best starting places is to seek out those gifts, skills and talents are possessed by the people who live there. Our first instinct to...

About every six weeks for the last six years, John and Peter have hosted conversations with community-building social innovators as their guests. Their August 4, 2020 guest was DeAmon Harges, named by the Kettering Foundation as one of eight...