I got this note from UMass Professor Emeritus Bill Berkowitz earlier this week, and with his permission have posted it here so you can share your own thoughts and suggestions. Dr. Berkowitz is a writer, editor, and core team member of the Community Tool Box, the most extensive web site on community health and development [...]

[ The resources linked below are those referenced in the book, p179ff ] Easy Steps Sponsor community dinners. Slow Food Community meals Establish a community newsletter, bulletin board, and community roster. Establish a neighborhood watch program. National Sheriffs’ Association Neighborhood Watch Program Start neighborhood investment clubs, community sports activities and restoration projects. Form weekly discussion [...]

Thanks to Richard Layman for pointing us to PPS, and to Bill Berkowitz for recommending the book. The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public places that build communities. It has identified 11 key elements in transforming public spaces into vibrant community places, whether they’re [...]

The goal of the Knight Foundation-Gallup Soul of the Community project is to explore how community qualities influence residents’ feelings about where they live, and how those perceptions relate to local economic growth and vitality. Gallup interviewed a group of randomly selected adults age 18 or older, currently residing in each of the 26 Knight [...]

In Empowering Neighborhoods and Restoring Play, Psychology Today columnist Peter Gray asked his readers to help him develop a proposal to build a neighborhood play and learning center “that could serve as a model that communities everywhere might emulate”. I said I’d help, and after putting in a few hours, recommended that he check out [...]

[ takeaway: murals brings community; and they're fun ] Wanted: local painters, no artistic training required. Tomorrow the Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project and the South of Navy Yards Artists will roll out brushes, pencils and buckets of paint for the young, and young at heart, to put the final brush strokes on a community mural. [...]

How do you build a library in the middle of the woods? Pretty Lake Vacation Camp did it with a lot of friends, a lot of donations, and a lot of coincidence. First, there was Pretty Lake Vacation Camp. The 93-year-old nonprofit free summer camp for area children dreamed of someday having a library for [...]

“We’re always thinking of ways to draw the community together the way neighborhoods were 70 years ago,” Waters said. The aim is to be “a community of friends and neighbors, not just houses — and have fun along the way.” The glue that holds everything together now is an active Listserv. “Even people who have [...]

click here for an updated version of this post: we added links to resources cited in the book Easy Steps Sponsor community dinners. Establish a community newsletter, bulletin board, and community roster. Establish a neighborhood watch program. Start neighborhood investment clubs, community sports activities and restoration projects. Form weekly discussion groups. Establish neighborhood baby-sitting coop. [...]

This list of free resources for neighborhood-based community building was developed with the help of people like you. To add to the list, please log in then use the submission form that will appear here. Thank you. We monitor this list regularly for broken links, but if you find any, please Leave a Reply below. [...]