Forum Activity for @holly-ingraham

Holly Ingraham
@holly-ingraham
02/03/10 10:04:10PM
3 posts

The Anatomy of a Connector


Community Connectors

April,Great topic. I believe that people and communities can utilize tools that help them to be connectors, and certainly understanding/experiencing asset based community development principles is one way. The mere act of conducting an asset map of a community helps connect people and resources.
Holly Ingraham
@holly-ingraham
02/03/10 09:57:32PM
3 posts

What are you reading?


Open Discussions

Deb,Great article/story, especially in light of the current health care debate. Wonder if any of these lessons we've been learning over the years will be incorporated into the health care reform bill?Deb Wisniewski said:
I'll start out this discussion by sharing an article that I read in a recent issue of the Sun. (If you haven't checked out this magazine, you should - great writing & a lot of it by the readers). The article is called Who Will Heal the Healers? It's an interview with a doctor who gets frustrated by the medical system and decides to listen to the community about the type of clinic people really want (although the full article isn't online, the excerpt is long enough to give you a good idea of the doctor and her clinic)
Holly Ingraham
@holly-ingraham
02/03/10 09:24:30PM
3 posts

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?