The National Center for Families Learning's (NCFL) mission is to eradicate poverty through education solutions for families. For over 30 years, Family Learning programs have been ideal spaces for community members to activate their collective voices and organize to address community issues. Community Development is the practice of residents,…

Youth fields professionals create the conditions in which young people can thrive: They activate the vision for high-quality programs; develop tools, systems, and approaches for designing and sustaining such programs; and form relationships with and among participating youth. However while investments in afterschool programming have continued to…

Describes features of learning communities: they transform themselves, share wisdom and recognition, bring others in, and share results. Provides the case example of the Upper Savannah River Economic Coalition. Discusses actions of learning communities, barriers to their development, and future potential. (SK)

A reading campaign among Palestinians combined learning with community building at the level of personal and community abilities, values, and beliefs. The project created long-lasting change by combining local resources and fostering the ability to work cooperatively and solve problems collectively. (SK)

Describes the combined school and public library in Olney, Texas. The result of a community planning program, the combined facility offers a small town's solution for providing adequate library services for education and general use with limited resources. (RAA)

Six community builders in Edmonton, Alberta, planned, developed, and implemented Listen and Learn II, a reflective research project in asset-based community building, over a 6-month period in 1998. They met regularly over 2 months to plan the research and design a method that was open to participation at any stage, encouraged exchange of…

Community clusters allow small towns to combine their efforts to enhance economic development, promote tourism, or share public services. Two successful clusters of communities in Iowa are the Area Community Commonwealth and the North Iowa Rural Area Development. Both clusters participated in Iowa State University's Cooperative Extension Service…

Rochester, New York, is globally competitive in optics manufacturing because of cooperative, strategic use of community resources: (1) collaboration of the University of Rochester and industry in the Center for Optics Manufacturing; (2) business cooperation in reform of the schools system; and (3) emphasis on total quality. (SK)

An action learning project for neighborhood regeneration in Coventry, England, showed that differences of power and viewpoint were inevitable and essential. More open networks enabling communication among community groups were needed. Funding for community networking needed to go beyond short-term projects supported by the current policy agenda.…

In Brattleboro (Vermont), adventure activities contributed to efforts of the police department to move to a more cooperative model of community policing. Adventure-based workshops helped officers to build unified teams with common goals and develop trust, empathy, and communication skills, while police-sponsored adventure activities forged links…

Rural economic development requires local consensus and a coordinated effort by community leaders and the public at large. In 12 rural Georgia counties, the University of Georgia is implementing a Rural Revitalization Initiative (RRI) that emphasizes collaboration of public officials and private individuals across disciplines, professions,…

The Tomorrow's Leaders Today program in rural Iowa promotes the development of multicommunity clusters within which communities cooperate. The leadership development curriculum focuses on action learning/action research and on the three elements of making personal contact, building group identity, and becoming organized. (SK)

Uses examples of the University of Illinois at Chicago Neighborhoods Initiative (UICNI) and Policy Research Action Group (PRAG) to show how strong, viable university/community collaborations can occur. Points to a new research model and key lessons learned on how to use collaborative partnerships to enhance social action on urban problems. (DSK)

Dynamic organizations are characterized by a compelling vision that focuses on results and employee commitment to growth. Over a period of 3 years an attempt was made to identify what it would take to create and maintain a dynamic living organization that has the ability to learn and grow on its own. Research was conducted in visits to…

Presents a case study of participatory evaluation which suggests an evaluation method which not only provides meaningful data for decision makers but also provides important feedback to the community. Shows the steps leading to self-evaluation workshops and reviews the evaluation methods that were utilized. (Author/CT)