Category Archives: Community Building
Becoming Joshua
The Rev. Damon Lynch III is a unique and prophetic voice in spelling out the pathways...
Gifts on Display
A neighborhood association in Indianapolis builds social fabric through house concerts convening talented community members and...
Power of Gifts Podcast
Bruce Anderson from the Core Gift Institute talks with John McKnight and Peter Block, authors of...
Departure for Another Way
Peter Block and John McKnight look at transformation as a process of departing from the consumer...
Ensuring Public Safety in a Sustainable Way
“How do we deal with people who have committed crime to minimize their recidivism? How do...
Jubilee is very simple.
by Peter Block 2019 is the 400th anniversary of slavery in America. Slavery is not a...
The Affinity Dilemma
By John McKnight Co-Director, Asset Based Community Development Institute from the John McKnight Learning Series The...
The Problem With Problems
By John McKnight Co-Director, Asset Based Community Development Institute from the John McKnight Learning Series At...
High School Student and Peter Block Discuss Life
What do you say to a sophomore in high school, who is interested in the illusion...
Organizing Residents to Solve an Impossible Challenge
If we want to end economic isolation and build wealth in the marginalized community, our thinking...
Faith and Church with No Bricks and Mortar: Conversation with Father Joseph Kovitch
Since their book The Abundant Community came out, John McKnight and Peter Block have sought out those social innovators who are bringing alive the ideas about how neighbors and local institutions can come together to create care, kindness, and welcome. One of those innovators is Father Joseph Kovitch. Peter and John talked with him in June of 2018. They are still in touch with him and what he describes here is still vibrant today.
Father Joe was a priest of Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Community in Westerville, Ohio, who worshiped in an Irish pub and is currently on a university campus; they are also serving out of a community house nearby. He has been ordained for 30 years and has served in many ministries and missional environments, some of which include serving as leader of a large traditional congregation, leading a redevelopment merger of three congregations into a new mission, and, at this moment, serving as Diocesan Missioner for New Episcopal Communities in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. Here is the conversation we had in 2018.
Listen to the Full Conversation:
The Parish in the Neighborhood
When we look at the Parish as a microcosm of all life’s dimensions, the conversation changes from traditional clergy talk of “butts, budgets and buildings,” to: What is God up to in our places, and how do we join in with that? Listen to Paul Sparks, Co-founding Director of the Parish Collective, discuss with Peter Block and John McKnight in this conversation:
Powerful Possibilities of Being Small
Small groups of faithful, committed people are the atoms that make a movement, says John McKnight....
Rethinking Racism
In January 1865, a revolutionary Special Order 15 known commonly as reconstruction or “40 acres and a mule” was a promise given to former slaves to receive 400,000 acres of free tillable land along the southern east U.S. coastline that would be governed by the black people themselves.
But the policy was overturned that fall by President Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor. The idea behind Special Order 15 shows America understood reparations. During a “Rethinking Racism” gathering in Cincinnati Rev. Damon Lynch III shares his goal to build strong, healthy, black communities and the four things that are needed to make that happen.
Read the handout: The Truth Behind ’40 Acres and a Mule’
Listen here
Economics of Compassion Initiative on the Ground in Spring Grove Village
By Derek Peebles As the local economy evolves, the Economics of Compassion Initiative is having conversations...
The Moment for Community Has Arrived
by Peter Block A World Divided Isolation is on the rise in our neighborhoods, institutions, cities,...
Pioneering Space for the Commons
In the city of Peterborough, Ontario, The Mount Community Centre is repurposing what was once home...
Community Harm Reduction for Addicts
Ann Livingston shares how the opening of Insite, Vancouver’s legal supervised injection site, was a political...
Creating Community: Podcast
What does community mean, and what creates a sense of belonging? What’s the entry point to...
Building Community in an Era of Isolation
The revised edition of Community: The Structure of Belonging was born out of a recognition that...
Returning Death to Community
What’s possible when we explore the idea of death, dying and living well from the perspective...
Cat or Dog? Reflections on Life In the Turn Lane
By Beverly Jones Here’s a suggestion I hadn’t heard: Be a cat if you don’t want...
Community Addicts
Ann Livingston is a community organizer from Vancouver, Canada. As a leader of “VANDU,” a community...
An Introduction to ABCD
A two-day workshop introducing the principles and applications of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) in the context...
Common Good Fellowship pilot beginsFellowship program provides community for radical leaders
Last week 33 change makers in the Common Good Fellowship pilot program convened in Cincinnati for...
How Neighborhoods Engage with Local Governments
How are institutions and government most useful in supporting neighbor driven initiatives? What can we do with a little bit of outside assistance? And what do we need somebody from the outside to do? Ron Dwyer-Voss asks these three questions in his work engaging with community groups who want to have stronger relationships with local government.
Ron, owner and founder of Pacific Community Solutions, uses the Asset-Based Community Development process with community groups to help them identify how they can do something to create transformation. He shares with John McKnight and Peter Block stories and insights such as the importance of including reflection and learning conversations as part of the process.
Listen:
ABCD Workshop Coming to Cincinnati
You’re invited to participate in an engaging two-day Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach workshop led by...
