Local Economy

The Community Tool Box is celebrating its 20th anniversary by hosting an Out of the Box Prize to honor innovative and promising approaches to promoting community health and development happening in communities worldwide. The Grand Prize winner will receive...

Detail from a graphic record of a facilitated discussion in Vancouver, B.C., in which participants talked about what belonging and community mean. The artists included examples of local community development in the drawing. Illustration by Liz Etmanski and Aaron Johannes/Spectrum...

More than a little buzz was created last fall when a story on an unusual restaurant in Norwood aired on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Sunday. In fact, the local restaurant featured in the report is so unusual...

What does a one-room schoolhouse in Michigan have to do with Greece, Europe, Democracy and the now floundering economic globalization experiment? On January 25, 2015 the far-left Syriza Party won 149 seats out of 300 in Greece’s parliamentary elections and formed...

I first started to write, "I live in a neighborhood that is cut off from a lot of the vibrant life of the city."  But, that's not true. What's true is that I live in a neighborhood that is...

Since the first community supported agriculture program was established in western Massachusetts in the 1980s, the concept of buying food directly from local farms has taken off. There are now thousands of CSAs across the country. It’s a simple enough...

Amber Cannon feels most energized when she looks back over the last few months that she’s been active in her community and realizes the mental health issues she’s struggled with in the past have lessened considerably. “Since I’ve been involved...

“I’m incredibly energized by the power of simple things,” Evangeline Hammond says. “By little things having the power to change people’s lives, and bring beauty to neighbourhoods. Soccer programs. Potlucks. Just sharing food.” She’s not talking hypothetically. She’s talking about a...

The Nebraska Community Foundation provides communities with assistance and technical expertise to maximize the effectiveness of community philanthropy and educates donors and community leaders on the impact of grant making on community economic development goals. It currently works with...

The Byron Community Foundation Fund was established in July 2011.  During its first year the Fund received eighteen gifts of grain worth more than $100,000.  With additional cash gifts and pledges, the Fund raised over $450,000 in less than...