• Coalition for Community Schools – Resources Housed at the Institute for Educational Leadership, CCS is an alliance of national, state and local organizations in education K-16, youth development, community development, and family support.
• eDemocracy.org Printable Outreach Resources for Inclusion Online Links to all of the print materials we are generating in our Inclusive Social Media effort promoting neighbor Issues Forum for all.
• Harlem Children’s Zone – Publications Newsletters, white papers & poems from Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone Project – a unique, holistic approach to rebuilding a community so that its children can stay on track through college and go on to the job market.
• National Gang Center The latest research about gangs; descriptions of evidence-based, anti-gang programs; links to tools, databases & other resources for developing & implementing effective community-based gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies.
• Promise Neighborhood Institutes Blog An independent, foundation-supported nonprofit resource, offers tools, information, and strategies to assist any community interested in participating in the DOE Promise Neighborhoods program.
• The Sharehood – Resources You don’t need to start a community garden or use our local currency or get an article in your local media to be part of a Sharehood community. We’re just giving you some information on how to do these things in case you want to.

The Community Tool Box is hosting an inaugural global prize contest for community innovations. The 2010 “Out of the Box” prize will recognize and honor promising initiatives from around the world that improve community development and community health. 

The Grand Prize will be $5,000 in cash, plus a free customized Workstation (interactive website that supports collaboration).  A second prize will be $2,000 in cash and a free WorkStation. 

We invite you to enter the innovations contest, and encourage you to share contest information with others doing innovative work to improve life in their communities. 

Your group’s innovation may involve activities to improve community health, education, urban or rural development, poverty, the environment, social justice, or other related issues of importance to communities. 

To learn more and to download an application form, please visit http://ctb.ku.edu/en/out_of_the_box.aspx. Or, for Spanish, visit http://ctb.ku.edu/es/out_of_the_box_es.aspx. 

The opening date for applications is August 1, with a closing date of October 31. An international panel of judges will select Finalists. Award Finalists and their innovative projects will be posted on the home page of the Community Tool Box. Public voting will then help determine the two top “Out of the Box” prize winners; voting will close on January 31, 2011. 

Many of you are already familiar with the Community Tool Box, which has been creating and disseminating practical guidance about community health and development online since 1995. For those of you who have not viewed our site recently, we invite you to visit us at http://ctb.ku.edu, where you will find over 300 how-to-do-it instructional modules and many tools for bringing about community change and improvement. 

If you have any questions concerning the Out of the Box Prize, please direct them to Christina Holt at cholt@ku.edu. 

Building strong communities is not easy. Even so, my 32-year background in community building has taught me some simple rules of engagement that still hold true today.

1. Have Fun

Cesar Cala, a community activist in the Philippines and now in Calgary, told me, “The problem is those GD activists.” “GD activists?” I inquired. “Yes,” he said, “the grim and determined.”

We all know those sour activists who act like civic engagement is their cross to bear. They love to complain. Who would want to get involved with them?

The key is to make community life fun again. As my friend Jeff Bercuwitz says, “Why have a meeting when you can have a party?”

[Some examples Jim cited: the Statue of Lenin erected in the Artist's Republic of Fremont, and the Blue Tulip Party of Elgin, Illinois]

2. Start Where People Are

Saul Alinsky, who is often described as the father of modern community organizing, complained that too many activists start with the world as they would like it to be rather than the world as it is. If you want to get people engaged, he advised, you need to start where they are. This is true on several levels.

First, the closer the action is to where people live, the more likely they are to get engaged. While there will undoubtedly be a larger turnout for a citywide meeting, there will never be a higher percentage of participation than if the meeting is held at the block level. A more localized meeting makes transportation and child care much easier. It also gives people a greater sense that their participation is important. After all, if they don’t attend, who will? And, if they aren’t present, they might be in trouble with their neighbours.

Second, if you want to get people involved, you need to be cognizant of their language and culture. This seems obvious in working with immigrants, but even when communicating with people who speak the same language as you, it is important to use words that are familiar to them. Too often, we use jargon or acronyms that comprise a sort of secret code known only by members of a particular profession or by hard core activists. Not only do we fail to communicate, but those whom we are trying to reach come to believe that they lack the expertise required for participation.

Third, in trying to recruit people, it is important to start with the networks to which they already belong. Too often, we think that people aren’t organized simply because they don’t belong to our organization. In fact, just about everyone belongs to at least one network, either formal or informal. They likely don’t have time to join yet another group. Besides, they have developed relationships within their existing network that make them comfortable.

It is especially difficult to recruit people whose age, income, ethnicity or other characteristics set them apart from the existing members of your organization. If you want to create a multi-cultural community effort, it generally works best to identify and build alliances with the key networks involving people who are underrepresented in your membership. These local networks could be centered on neighbourhood, nationality, faith, education, business, recreation, environment, history, art, crime prevention, service, a hobby, or something else. There are literally dozens of networks in every neighbourhood. When these networks are aligned, the community can exercise tremendous power.

Fourth, we need to focus on people’s passions. Too often, we try to convince people to care about our cause — what we are passionate about or what we are paid to promote. And, when people don’t join us, we call them apathetic. In fact, no one is apathetic. Everyone cares deeply about something. People will get involved to the extent that we can tap into their passion. The key is to start, not with an answer or with a program, but with a question: “What is your dream or what keeps you up at night?”

Finally, in order to start where people are, you need to know their call. I learned this lesson from John McKnight, Director of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute. McKnight taught me that different kinds of people respond to different kinds of calls, just like ducks. Too often, though, we only use the loon call and wonder why only the loons turn out.

Typically, the meeting (not the mating) call is the one that we use. For most people, this is the worst possible call. They’re afraid to come to the first meeting because they know they will be on the sign-in sheet and be sentenced to meetings for the remainder of their life. Those who have come to meetings usually see few if any results. And, many people are shy. They may attend meetings because it is the only option they are given, but they don’t feel like they are making a contribution.

In fact, everyone will get involved if they hear their call. Most people respond to the social call of community meals, parties and festivals. Shy people may respond to the volunteer call as a tutor or mentor. And, everyone seems to love the project call. With projects, unlike with meetings, people make a short-term commitment and they see results. There’s a role for everyone – young people, elders, people with disabilities, architects, artists, construction workers, etc. The more varied the calls they utilize, the more broad-based and inclusive the organization will be.

3. Strive for Results

While it is important to start where the people are, it is crucial not to leave them there. This is especially true of people who have felt powerless and are getting involved for the first time. They need to see results if they are going to stay involved. So, you probably don’t want to start by working on world peace or global warming. Alinsky talked about the importance of focusing on issues that are immediate, concrete and realizable. Once people have a sense that they can make a difference, they will be more ready to tackle the larger issues.

4. Utilize People’s Strengths

Activists tend to focus on the problems in their community. As a result, they look outside the community for the solutions and overlook the abundant assets that exist in every neighbourhood and in every individual. Everyone has gifts of the head (knowledge), heart (passion), and hands (skills). Identifying ways in which people can contribute those gifts to the community is a wonderful way to get them engaged. This is especially true for labeled people such as prostitutes, drug users, at-risk youth, immigrants, and homeless and disabled individuals.

5. Celebrate Success and Recognize Caring Neighbours

Getting results is important, but much of the potential value is lost if you fail to celebrate your success and thank those who made it possible. Neighbours need to know that people like themselves were responsible. The sharing of such stories inspires people about what is possible when they work together and build on their assets. Public recognition also motivates those being recognized to do more.

Click for more details and images. (This photo essay on CNN i-Report.)

A group of post-80′s youth (born after 1980) is demonstrating their displeasure of the current impasse of the political situation in Hong Kong by doing “walk and chalk” protests in various neighbourhoods throughout the territory.

Democratic development in Hong Kong has been a major issue since the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997. Under the principle of “one country, two systems”, Hong Kong runs on economic and political systems different from those of mainland China. Hong Kong is one of the world’s leading international financial centres, with a major capitalist service economy.

However, unlike its neighbours — Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea — and peers in terms of economic development, Hong Kong still does not have democratic elections and universal suffrage.

A team of eight walked blind-folded and bare-foot into 5 neighourhoods. Taking 22 steps at a time (to represent the previous 22 years under China’s administration), they kneeled and wrote “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong, with a high degree of autonomy” in Chinese, with white chalk on the pavement, to the accompaniment of drumbeats.

The walk covered Sheung Shui to Tai Po in New Territories East; Tsuen Wan in New Territories West; Mongkok to Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon West; Wong Tai Sin in Kowloon East as well as Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island.

The event, organized by the Post-80s Youth Against Special Interests and the Federation of University Students, mirrored “Neighbour Chalk”, which is convened by NeighborsForNeighbors.org, an international public art project that encourages people to create sidewalk chalk art in front of their homes and around their neighbourhood or town to create a welcoming environment for their neighbours and passers by.

• Chicago Sun-Times: Folks use digital tools to take role in community – “Leonard’s experience mirrors the findings of a study released Wednesday. Contrary to assumptions that people who go online hole up in their basements, the study showed the opposite: Internet users are more likely than non-users to talk face to face with their neighbors about local and community issues.”
• CivSource: More going online to go local – “Steven Clift, director of E-Democracy.org – a nonprofit organization that works to develop civic engagement and online community building strategies – called the report an “excellent start,” in an interview yesterday. The report puts numbers to what we’ve instinctively thought about neighborhood activity online and I think it will certainly move the field of discussion along.”
• Christian Science Monitor: The Internet probably won’t turn you into a hermit, study finds – “Far from being more reclusive, Internet users are more likely to meet their neighbors face-to-face and engage in community issues, a new study reveals. The findings suggests that talking in person or over the telephone remain the top two ways that people living close to one another keep up on community developments, even in an increasingly digital world.”
• e-democracy: Neighbors Online – What have 27% of Internet Users Discovered? Women Lead the Way. Need More Inclusion – “So now we have numbers on the digital participation divide we must close: Only 2% of those with household incomes under $30,000 are on a neighborhood e-mail list; only 3% of Hispanics; only 2% of rural residents.”
• New York Times: Friends, Neighbors and Facebook – “There’s no need to pine for a return to the pre-Facebook, cardigan-swaddled idealism of Mister Rogers and his charming “neighbors” and “friends,” but it is important for us to remember that tangible, meaningful engagement with those around us builds better selves and stronger communities.”
• ReadWriteWeb: Neighbors Rely On Word of Mouth, But Online Gains – “The biggest effect that online tools have had on neighborhood interactions is in providing an avenue for learning about and interacting on local issues to individuals who might not engage in these issues through more traditional means.”

Although all of Pew’s survey respondents are from the United States, the report has global implications. See this analysis by UK-based Kevin Harris, author of the Neighbourhoods blog, reprinted here in its entirety with Kevin’s permission (thanks Kevin):

Online communication in neighbourhoods: not just people we know

The latest Pew Internet Project report has just been published, on the topic of ‘neighbors online’.

It’s based on telephone interviews with 2,258 Americans, and while I didn’t read anything that hit the wow-box it certainly helps us think about communication at neighbourhood level. The questions asked about face-to-face interaction with neighbours, telephone contact, and a range of local online resources.

Unsurprisingly (and as last year’s Pew Internet study demonstrated) internet users are just as likely as non-users to discuss local issues face-to-face. People in higher income households and with higher educational attainment are more likely to talk face-to-face with neighbours about local issues.

Between 4% and 11% of all those surveyed exchange email with their neighbours about local issues, read a blog dealing with local issues, or are signed up to a locally-focussed online forum or social network. This is baseline data, hopefully Pew will repeat the questions every now and then.

For me the most interesting finding was this:

15% of internet users who know none of their immediate neighbors by name read community blogs or join a community-focused group on an online social network.

This compares with 14% of those who know all of their neighbors. Maybe communicative folk will use f2f, telephone, email, twittever they can, to communicate. But there are obvious differences. For example, generally if you’re going to speak to a neighbour on the phone, you’re going to ‘know’ them first; if you connect with a neighbour through an online forum, you don’t need to know them. Non-communicative folk who realise they are disadvantaged by lack of connection and information now have local spaces where they can lurk comfortably and still become informed. Dat’s progress for yer.

As always with this kind of material, the meaning of the findings is subject to what we understand by ‘knowing’ our neighbours; and by the significance we attach to that. I maintain that it is not knowing neighbours by name that matters in terms of a supportive local social environment, but recognition. I can’t say whether or not the north American context is comparable, but I observe that Keith Hampton has found it necessary to stress the importance of weak ties against a tendency to privilege strong ties. If our understanding of the contribution of online to neighbouring is focused on strong ties, we could be missing, or misinterpreting, a lot.

Last year’s Pew Internet Survey asked a question designed to ascertain whether the internet had affected people’s understanding of the word ‘discuss’ in relation to ‘important matters’ and ‘significant ties’. (The researchers did not find that it has). If they can do that, maybe they can work on the question of whether the internet may be affecting our understanding of the word ‘know’ in relation to ‘neighbours’. And perhaps more importantly, we can start looking at how local online resources allow us to connect with people we don’t know.

Kevin Harris has worked in community development for 24 years, with a focus on designing and running events involving residents and professionals. He has authored numerous publications and has been an adviser to the UK government on social inclusion, access to and use of information technologies, and citizenship. His work has centered on social inclusion, participation and community cohesion. Kevin has undertaken several community development projects at a local level, and recently completed a study of participation in the English new town of Milton Keynes. Current work includes research into the social impacts of neighbourhood online networks in London, for London Councils. Kevin was previously a British Library Research Fellow. He is currently an Associate of Community Development Foundation and of the Centre for Intergenerational Practice.

It’s Joseph Porcelli, I’m the Chief Executive Neighbors at NeighborsForNeighbors.org and I’m also one of the editors here on Our Blocks.

It’s summer time and one the pleasures of summer is making sidewalk chalk. So today, NeighborsForNeighbors.org is launching Neighbor Chalk and we’re inviting you to join us and help spread the word.

Neighbor Chalk is an international public art project that encourages people to create sidewalk chalk art in front of their homes and around their neighborhood to create a welcoming environment for their neighbors and passers by.

Chalk it up! | Promote Your Page Too

From The Spirit of Coalition, by Bill Berkowitz and Tom Wolff © 2000 American Public Health Association. Dr. Berkowitz has been involved in creating, directing, and writing about community programs for over 35 years. His previous books, Community Impact, Community Dreams, and Local Heroes deal with the skills, ideas, and personal qualities involved in successful community development. Dr. Wolff is an internationally recognized expert in coalition building and community development, who consults to and trains coalition practitioners in diverse settings across the world. He is the author most recently of The Power of Collaborative Solutions.

Challenges to coalition building, and tested strategies to meet them

1. Engaging citizens

• Learn about citizens groups and associations
• Develop contacts and relationships with these groups
• Keep on the lookout for potential new recruits
• Make personal contacts with prospective citizen members
• Suggest giving the coalition a try (a small commitment)
• Provide an incentive (e.g., status, a small stipend, a name on a letterhead)
• Offer a range of ways people can help

2. Building citizen participation

• Hold meetings at convenient times and locations
• Provide time for informal interaction
• Let people share their goals, expectations, and feelings
• Make sure citizens have an equal voice
• Hire agency staff from within the community
• Allow time for trust to develop

3. Giving up control

• Solicit and encourage ideas and issues from everyone
• Listen to and validate those ideas and issues
• Provide specific procedures and clear ground rules
• Believe in your own members’ abilities
• Accept that mistakes may occur
• Consider that disagreements may be healthy
• Don’t feel you have to do everything

4. Giving up territory

• Be aware of past history and past territorial issues
• Openly acknowledge that territorial concerns may exist
• Understand current territorial definitions
• Respect members’ self-interests and their need to hold on to some “territory” of their own
• Find ways to cooperate that don’t involve territory
• Be gentle, persistent, and patient around these issues
• Keep coalition members focused on the greater good

5. Taking meaningful action

• Discuss and clarify the overall goals of the coalition
• Create a coalition plan based on those goals
• In the plan, include clear objectives with actions and timelines
• Agree upon small, feasible, easily realized actions
• Give members advance notice of decisions that need to be made (e.g., on coalition agendas)
• Follow up on decisions made and actions needing to be taken
• If needed, discuss in a meeting why decision making and action seem to be difficult

6. Exerting your leadership

• Make sure your leadership represents the full coalition
• Clarify work expectations together with coalition members
• Make sure that taking some responsibility is part of the membership expectation
• Find those members most willing to accept responsibility
• Delegate responsibility, with agreed-upon limits
• Follow up on responsibility delegated
• Offer leadership training for prospective new leaders

7. Balancing your life

• Find a balance that works for you personally
• Review that balance from time to time
• Set aside personal time and personal days for yourself
• Lead a healthy lifestyle, making time for rest and vacations
• Find some interests beyond the coalition
• Find supportive people you can talk to when needed

8. Keeping the flame alive

• Plan future directions together with coalition members
• Move at a pace consistent with members needs
• Groom a new leadership
• Take on winnable activities, and develop a track record of success
• Reward members for accomplishments
• Build in some celebration and fun times for the coalition

9. Keeping the faith

Faith is found in many places. We can’t tell you how or where to find it. It is a personal matter. But we do know that faith in the coalition and in its success is essential – and we hope that you can find a way of maintaining and sustaining it for yourself.

[From this article, reposted in its entirety with the permission of Julian Dobson, author of Living with Rats, founding editor of New Start magazine, Fellow of the RSA, and a voluntary board member at the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. - Thanks Julian.]

The Big Society is here – at least in the sense that it’s official policy. And it’s been here for years, in the real action being done in thousands of neighbourhoods across the UK to improve places and create better opportunities for people.

Today New Start magazine and the National Association of Neighbourhood Management got a group of people together to look at how we can build on what’s been learned to ensure the Big Society ideas fulfil their potential.

We had people who are making social action a reality in places like Manton in Nottinghamshire and Church Street in Westminster; people with years of experience in community development; activists and academics; and people who are promoting creative ways of telling stories and developing conversations.

Whatever the Big Society becomes, there are pitfalls it needs to avoid. I posted some thoughts here a few weeks ago; Kevin Harris has shared some important insights on his blog; and Gabriel Chanan and Colin Miller have written a helpful analysis of the Big Society from a community development perspective.

Here are a few of my opening thoughts from today’s discussion [click here to see the discussion on ScribbleLive]:

• First, the Big Society is not a painkiller. The savings to be expected from empowering communities won’t offset the effect of £6bn of public spending cuts, with much more to come. That doesn’t mean fostering more community control isn’t worthwhile. It’s just that if the prime objective becomes saving cash, it won’t work.
  The impact of the public spending cuts hasn’t really sunk in. People will lose their jobs. Often they will be people in households who are already struggling to get by. When the dirty work of deciding what should stay and what should go is passed down the line, there will be unpleasant and difficult choices.
  In that context, active and empowered citizens are not an alternative to decent public services. But a culture of community action will help us to become more resilient – to cope better with the shocks of spending cuts and create the smarter local infrastructure we’ll need in a more frugal age. A Big Society could nurture a generation of doers with the courage to show real local leadership.
• Second, it needs to be based on evidence. If we want healthy and strong communities we need to examine what’s happened in the past. There is a wealth of information available, from academic evaluations of government programmes to local case studies. We need to use it.
• Third, the learning has to be shared. There is little value in keeping it in a collection of obscure websites that few people use. But bringing it together and keeping those links, personal as well as virtual, up to date and relevant is a big job. It won’t just happen. And that sharing needs to take place in a variety of ways to ensure learning takes root: online, in print, in face to face exploration and more.
• Fourth, a culture of sharing demands networks, not empires. We’ve had too many attempts to pool learning that have been stifled by the dead hand of proprietorial interference or simply neglected. We need a Creative Commons approach where learning is gathered but organisations and groups are then free to reuse, adapt and repurpose what has been done.
• Fifth, there is no year zero. There’s always a temptation for a new government or a new wave of activists to imagine the rule book can be torn up and a new future created from the cauldron of creativity that results. That doesn’t happen. Trying to apply the principles of creative destruction to communities and social networks is, generally, a bad idea: you just end up with the destruction. So we need to recognise history, story and roots, as well as futures and opportunities.
• The sixth point is that we’re here to help. Those of us who got together today, and many others who didn’t, have abilities to digest, communicate, facilitate, analyse and inspire and we need to work collaboratively to make sure this happens as a new generation of community activists emerges. There’s a huge amount of goodwill out there. We have to build on it.

The challenge for the Big Society Network, and for those seeking to engage with it, is to bring this all together in a way that recognises and respects its value, and then apply it in a way that inspires and motivates not only potential community organisers but also the people in local and central government who need to work with them. It’s a tall order. But we need to take that risk while there’s still an appetite for working in new ways.

See also: NANM director Ben Lee’s recap: Action not just Reaction; transcript of the liveblog at regenfuture (watch that space for the full report)

Enjoy a complimentary breakfast while you learn about strategies to create places that are affordable, diverse, walkable, and have a high quality of life.

After the panel, we will have the rest of the morning to discuss ways that you can help create “great neighborhoods” and shape the Smart Growth Alliance’s innovative new Great Neighborhoods program.

LEARN how other cities and towns broadened opportunities for local residents.

LISTEN for lessons that metro Boston should adopt.

SHARE your ideas in discussions with our panelists and Smart Growth Alliance members.

Admission is Free, but seating is limited. RSVP above under “Ticket Information”. Complimentary breakfast and sign-in begins at 8:30am

For questions, contact Tracy Hudak at thudak@mapc.org or at 617-451-2770, extension 2018. For more info. visit:

http://greatneighborhoods.eventbrite.com/

Click for more details and images. (This photo essay on CNN i-Report.)
Click for Fab Bike Fashion. (This photo essay on CNN i-Report.)

An estimated 150,000 commuters and students hopped on their bikes, instead of into their cars, in the San Francisco bay area on Thursday, May 13, 2010. People from Oakland, Palo Alto to San Jose overwhelmingly supported the Bike to Work Day…

In San Francisco, bicycles outnumbered cars 3 to 1 in the morning roadway traffic on Market Street, the main thoroughfare of the city, according to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition which organized the 16th annual event jointly with the City of San Francisco.

Biking advocates say this record increase in bicycle ridership is directly related to the newly introduced distinctly separated, green Market Street bike lanes and other improvements that make the streets all across the city safer for bikers and non-bikers alike.

“We are thrilled to have Mayor Newsom leading these exciting biking innovations on Market Street, the busiest biking street west of the Mississippi. This is a great first step towards a separated bikeway the length of lower Market Street,” said Renee Rivera, acting Executive Director of the SF Bicycle Coalition, a non-profit which promotes bicycling, and organizer of the event.

Rivera rode with Mayor Newsom that morning to City Hall to kick-off the event.

“I saw about 4 times as many people biking to work, which is great. Some people may be trying it for the first time because they feel there is support and advocacy for this specific day,” said Meli Grosa, who bikes to work everyday, and blogs on “Bikes and the City”. She also models for the After-work Party and Fashion Show at Rickshaw Stop in the evening.

The Fashion Show was styled by Gwen Lutz of Gwendolyn Lee Productions, with artisanal bike clothing by B Spoke Tailor, DJs, raffle prizes, and complimentary bicycle valet. “It is really wonderful to see the birth and growth of biking commuter culture in San Francisco with the hard work of the SF Bike Coalition,” enthused Gwen, who takes the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and then bikes to work in Oakland.

Most Bay Area transits, including BART, Caltrain, Muni, and other buses, allow riders to bring their bikes with them.

Many heads turned when Mark Dwight, founder and CEO of Rickshaw Bagworks, whose stylish biking bags were featured in the fashion show, rode into the energizer station at Ferry Building. Mark sports his custom-made fire-engine-red “human-propelled Ferrari” bike, and has joined the event for the last 8 years.

Over 200 Energizer Stations, during the morning (6:30-9:30 am) and afternoon (5-7 pm) commute, located along local bike commute routes in all nine Bay Area counties, provided free beverages, snacks and good cheer to bicyclists. Select stations offering basic bicycle maintenance and all-day bicycle valet parking services.

Bike to Work Day 2010 is presented by Kaiser Permanente, the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the SFMTA, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, and hundreds of local volunteers. For more information, visit http://www.sfbike.org.