Gifts

The Peterson Garden Project

In 1942 Chicago led the nation in the Victory Garden Movement, which was a surprise to many because the city was the country’s second-largest urban area at the time and 90 percent of its citizens had never gardened before....

Growing Power ~ Will Allen

Former professional basketball player Will Allen is a leader in the food security and urban farming movement through his farm and not-for-profit, Growing Power. He and his organization have trained and inspired people in every corner of the US...

From Gangs to Gardens: How Community Agriculture Transformed Quesada Avenue

Flowers bloom alongside Quesada Avenue. Photo by Katherine Gustafson.   In 2002, two neighbors armed with spades and seeds changed everything for crime-addled Quesada Avenue in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point area. The street had been ground zero for the area’s drug trade...

HoodRoving in G-Park: Chocolate, Radio, Tango, Change

This is an excerpt from April's piece that ran in This Week in Sarasota on June 25, 2012. For the complete story plus lots more photos and links to videoclips, sources and related material, go to http://www.thisweekinsarasota.com/hoodroving-in-g-park-chocolate-radio-tango-change   We hear week-in and week-out...

The Institutional Assumption

The “institutional assumption” — for example, thinking in terms of medical care, clinics, insurance, outreach instead of health — is the most consistent failure in our thinking about change. If we start by looking at the condition we're interested in,...

It’s the Community, Stupid!

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...

A Better Way

    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...

10 Ways to Create Community Where You Live

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...

Break Time Bakery

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,...

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Corporate Capture: Can We Find a Way Out?

This article, published originally by Nonprofit Quarterly, from Nonprofit Quarterly Magazine’s summer 2024 issue, “Escaping Corporate Capture.” The aircraft manufacturer Boeing,...