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:

 


Ron Dwyer-Voss

Quotes:
“And (the community volunteers) get some things done and they realize that they’ve got some internal, inherent power and that changes their posture, but eventually it changes the posture of the local government as well, who starts to notice them.” – Ron Dwyer-Voss

“If you just want to set up programs, you’re vulnerable to whoever funds those programs. If you set up stuff that you all do, the way you want to do it, it will last as long as you want it to.” – Ron Dwyer-Voss

“The best thing you can do to make your neighborhood safer is to make sure you know all your neighbors and they know each other.” – Ron Dwyer-Voss

 

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Photo by Hans-Peter Gauster on Unsplash