April Doner

April Doner is a community connector, artist, and mother who is passionate about igniting the intersection between re-weaving neighbor relationships, strengthening local economies, and healing / reconciling inequities and injustices. She is a Steward at the ABCD Institute DePaul University and, while not practicing neighboring in her own neighborhood, she trains, coaches, and consults in Asset Based Community Development. April also documents local resilience as well as group processes through various creative means including writing, photography, video, and graphic recording. Since 2020, she has curated content for AbundantCommunity.com.
47 POSTS

StoryCorps Spearheads Courageous Conversations Across a Growing Divide

Polarization is spiraling both the US and globally, reducing trust, distorting facts, disrupting relationships, and quietly dividing communities. Where are the spaces for reconciling worldviews and repairing the harm that has come from an increasingly hostile and extreme political...

Power is Bond

The Common Good podcast is a conversation about the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation and the structure of belonging. In this episode, Common Good partnered with April Doner and the Abundant Community to speak with Yuki Jackson.   Yuki Jackson...

Start with What You Have, Where You Are: The Kheprw Story

"Growing community is like growing food. It's a lot of work. You gotta till the soil. You gotta plant the seeds. You gotta have the right weather conditions. Community is just like that. You start with what you have...

Oakland’s Understory Restaurant Prioritizes People and Community

For decades, neighbors, social scientists and city planners have recognized the critical role of "bumping places" - spots where meeting new and old friends is made natural and easy - for a healthy and vibrant communities. Bumping places are typically...

‘There’s Good Everywhere:’ Neighbors Partner with Free Library of Philadelphia to Find and Connect Assets

From 2018 to 2021, I had the great joy of working with my colleague Joe Erpenbeck and a team of colleagues from the ABCD Institute in walking alongside an immensely creative, caring group of community members and project staff...

Nick Cave on Creating Sacred Space: Escape, or Engage?

What space do we need to create? Is it necessary to retreat from the world in order to give most fully of ourselves to a world yearning for our gifts? For over ten years, the musician and lyricist who has...

25 Ways to Love Your Neighborhood

Strengthening neighborhoods often comes down to the simple habit of performing neighborly acts of care, love, and attention, again and again over time. This approachable list from The Hopeful Neighborhood Project gives us some practical ways to tap into the...

People’s WPA (cont’d): Prisoner’s Apothecary & SIPP Culture

As a continuation of our spotlight on the People's WPA by the US Department of Arts & Culture, the following are two stories of artists working within their communities to foster transformation toward a more caring, nourished, just and...

Kwanzaa in Philly: How neighborhoods celebrate the African-American holiday

The article below tells the story of how one neighbor generated unity, learning and joy within her neighborhood by bringing fellow community members together around the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa.   Kwanzaa in Philly: How neighborhoods celebrate the African-American holiday by Michaela...

How to Find Personal Gifts without Buying New during the Holidays

As the holidays unfurl, bringing hopes and promises of special flavors, cozy traditions and connection, an urgency also begins to brew within our minds and homes: to buy. At our best, we buy out of our desire to concretely demonstrate...