The Vital Role of Community Connectors A highlight for me from the recent ABCD Gathering in Chicago was a discussion I facilitated with a passionate group on the vital role of Community Connectors. We talked about the differences between the people who are nat...
Category: Community
Getting Out of Our Silos
Getting Out Of Our Silos For 35 years I have spent time with people with disabilities and their families finding ways that we can each share our uniques gifts and contributions to create caring, supportive and inclusive societies. While sometimes we might feel...
An Inspirational Living Library
The Living Library Last week I was honoured to be the Emcee and presenter at Making, a conference on Asset Based Community Development held in Brantford, Ontario. The 2 and a half days were full of tours, conversation, youth day, art activities and presen...
Making Adjustments
On a recent trip in central Ohio, I met Jim, Mark and Steve from San Diego while having breakfast. I noticed the back of Jim’s shirt as he passed by and was curious if he was currently biking across the country. I learned that he and 2 friends were 700...
Community Questions
Community Questions Good questions can be so valuable. There’s a church I attended when I was in Madison that would start the service with a community question. This was a time to get with 1 or 2 others and respond to a question. Good questions provided ...
An a-MAZE-ing Community Builder
Himy Syed is likely to show up almost anywhere in the city studying what is going on and looking for an opportune time and place to bring out his sidewalk chalk and draw a labyrinth. I met him several weeks ago at the Strathcona Street Festival where he had dr...
Sustaining Community Building Work
Last week I hosted a training on ABCD at DePaul University in Chicago with a team of ABCD Faculty Members and Fellows. The team was very intentional about building on the talents of the participants from diverse backgrounds across the US. We spoke about ...
Hospitality on Bus 50
Hospitality on Bus 50 … The driver noticed me sitting down in the seat gingerly and getting my legs positioned just right and asked if i was ok? I said I just had hip surgery but was doing well. He then seemed careful to stop and start at each sto...
Treasures That Vanish
As I drove into Ravenna, Ohio I saw this drive-in movie theater. I was nostalgic thinking of places in our communities that are treasures but disappear. Often there are buildings, gathering places, parks and businesses that are replaced with something new. It...
A Community Effort
I was walking in San Francisco and saw a crowd outside of a federal building. I leaned that everyone was gathered to see the release of Fernando Carrillo. He was being reunited with his family after being held for six months outside of the city on depo...