Relational Organizing - tapping social capital assets
Open Discussions
Hi Ron,Great point about starting with relationships rather than issues in a community.One community that I am working with had this same insight. They are interested, long term, in improving the school district in their community and in turn improving the overall "livability" of their neighborhood. One small step they thought their neighborhood association could take on is to restore a historic home that once served as a reading center for the school district (complete with retired teachers in the community volunteering to tutor kids!). Rather than tackle the "issue/project" first, they had the insight to just get people together, start getting to know each other and about the historic home. So, they decided to start a community garden on the land surrounding the historic home. They received permission from the school district to use the land (the district can barely maintain the property). In their first season, they attracted more than 30 neighbors who signed up and maintain their own garden plot at the community garden. As folks get to know each other through the gardening they have continued to move forward their ideas about rehabbing the historic home and now have more support and resources through the relationships they built gardening together.The community garden may well replace those bowling leagues Putnam talked about!Do others have examples of community gardens and relationship building?