Resources for community building

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Permalink Reply by Kurt Elder on August 18, 2009 at 12:51pm

'Community Renewal International' is by the far the best faith based (not filled) community action group that I have ever been apart of. I push those organizations that I'm involved with (three states away) to mirror their effort and methodology.

http://www.communityrenewal.us/

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Permalink Reply by Leo Romero on September 6, 2009 at 1:20am

UMass Professor Emeritus Bill Berkowitz sent us these recommended resources:

• The Community Tool Box, a service of the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas - the world's largest resource for free information on essential skills for building healthy communities. It offers more than 7,000 pages of practical guidance in creating change and improvement, and is growing as a global resource for this work.
• Neighborhood Resources at the Society for Community Research and Action - "circa 2006, though at this point that could probably use some updating".

Dr. Berkowitz adds: "As for books, two useful ones I’ve come across fairly recently are The Great Neighborhood Book, by Jay Walljasper, which focuses on creating public spaces, and Superbia!: 31 ways to create sustainable neighborhoods, by Dan Chiras and Dave Wann, which deals with ideas for improving and sustaining neighborhood life in the suburbs (the suburbs tend to get underplayed in the neighborhood literature, though that’s where roughly half the American population lives). Both are published by New Society Publishers."

(source: Our Blocks)

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Permalink Reply by Leo Romero on September 8, 2009 at 12:40am

Reemberto Rodriguez, Director of the Silver Spring Regional Services Center, sent us a link to his List of Lists for Community Engagement and Neighborhood Revitalization. He calls it an "amateurish personal list" but he's been building it with "a bunch of renegade friends, family, and foes". We found several good resources there that hadn't yet made it to our linkrolls:

Free Libraries Online
(from Reemberto's list of Web-Sites For Community Building, Organizing, and Leadership)

• Resources for Evaluating Community Organizing - includes detailed summaries of each resource so users can find the resources that are most useful for their evaluation needs. Most of the resources — case studies, tools and methodologies, and theoretical approaches to evaluation — are broadly available to the public, either through free downloads from the organization's website, or through an e-mail request.
• communityplanning.net - Provides easily accessible how-to-do-it best practice information of international scope and relevance.

Blogs
(from his Blogs on CE and NR list)

• Civic Blogger, Robert Voigt, Urban Planner - sharing and analyzing information on citizen engagement in public projects and plans
• The Neighbors Campaign - a collaboration of nonprofits, government agencies, and grassroots leaders are linking residents to services – and to each other
• Community Engagement & Neighborhood Revitalization (Reemberto's blog)

Books
(from his list of Community Engagement Books Worth Reading)

• "Consensus Organizing", Mike Eirchler, Sage Publications, Inc., 2007
• "We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do - and Why", Kristing Layng Szakos and Joe Szakos, Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 2007
• "Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups that Can Solve Problems and Change the World", Michael Jacoby Brown, Long Haul Press, 2006

Thanks Reemberto!

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Permalink Reply by Christina Deady on September 8, 2009 at 4:56pm

I recommend Reemberto's list--lots of good stuff in there!

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Permalink Reply by Leo Romero on September 8, 2009 at 11:03pm

Thanks Christina, Reemberto and friends pieced together a really useful list of lists.

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Permalink Reply by Ron Dwyer-Voss on September 10, 2009 at 1:52pm

I have found Reemberto's list really useful. Full disclosure: I am one of his renegade friends.
One source that I don't think I ever submitted to his list is The Heartland Center for Leadership Development. The have great stuff on community leadership and volunteer engagement. They also have this nifty CD, "Your Field Guide to Community Building"
Contact the Heartland Center for Leadership Development for more information or to order the Field Guide and CD,
1-800-927-1115.

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Permalink Reply by Ron Dwyer-Voss on September 10, 2009 at 1:53pm

also, Mike Green's website has some great stories, case studies and tools/handouts on it.
www.mike-green.com

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Permalink Reply by Leo Romero on September 12, 2009 at 3:50am

Thanks Ron. I added Mike Green's site to our Resources page.

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