Joe Erpenbeck

Where Will We Post The Great Photos? At one of the recent conversations focusing on innovation, we discussed planning backwards. Our journey may seem difficult and there will be challenges but as we plan, let’s start at the end. Our great “hike&#82...

At a planning session for a new development in my neighbourhood, much attention was focused on preserving the facades of the older smaller buildings that have been around for many years. The new developments will be added to the the existing structure that wil...

  A burst of sunshine in Yellow Springs Ohio is the Little Free Pantry hosted by the First Presbyterian Church of Yellow Springs. There is a great variety of food and they take  requests. It also seems to serve as a neighbourhood gathering point. What a...

My amazing Dad has run his own service station for 47 years as of last month! He’s on the right and our friend and part of our family, Jim is  on the left. Their story started when Jim was a high school student working in the building when Dad took over...

What Are Your Hidden Gifts? Often when we think of our gifts and assets, we think of big things such as being a volunteer at community centre or coordinating a knitting club. However, there are often other things we overlook that are a part of who we are, but ...

It is often said that we can achieve more as group/ team / neighbourhood than we can as individuals.  We all have  interests, gifts, and skills. When we share those in the community or in a group we can find a sense of belonging, relationships, and our commu...

My Aunt Noel recently wrote a short book The Pearl Street Flood, about my Grandpa, Charlie Erpenbeck. It is a story of survival, courage, community and love. My Grandpa died before I was born and my Dad has told me stories over the years of his father and h...

Last night as I was biking, I ran into a road block of geese who were enjoying a shower. I met a woman who discovered as she was watering her plants the geese and ducks would gather nearby even though there’s an ocean just yards away. The geese now drop ...

Yanni’s Greek Grill is on the north side of Columbus. It has been there for over 20 years. The food is delicious and the place is very welcoming. The server ( and community builder) engages with everyone and  on this night facilitated a group conversati...

A topic that has come up often is how do we do good community building work that is citizen driven and builds on the assets when we are working within a system. There are often rules, procedures, and limitations that get in our way. Many of these may be real, ...