The new edition of the acclaimed guide to strategic decision-making in community planning, development, and collaboration

Based on the results of more than a decade of research by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, Smart Communities provides directions for strategic decision-making and outlines the key strategies used by thousands of leaders who have worked to create successful communities. Outlining seven "leverage points" for

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"In this immersive, spell-binding memoir, an acclaimed screenwriter tells the story of her childhood growing up with the infamous Lyman Family cult-and the complicated and unexpected pain of leaving the only home she'd ever known. On January 5, 1975, the world was supposed to end. Under strict instructions from the Family leader, seven-year-old Guinevere Turner put on her best dress, grabbed her favorite toy, and waited with the rest of her community...

"Although communities feel magical, they don't come together by magic. Get Together is a guide to cultivating a community--people who come together over what they care about. Whether you're starting a run crew, helping online streamers connect with fans, or sparking a movement of K-12 teachers, the secret to getting people together is this: build your community with people, not for them."--

A trenchant history of Cleveland’s community organizing movements, detailing their origins, campaigns, and legacies.
Randy Cunningham, a founding member of the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, spent nearly fifteen years researching grassroots efforts that put neighborhood concerns and voices front and center. In Democratizing Cleveland, he chronicles one of the greatest examples of mass civic and democratic education in...

"People love their communities and want them to become safer, healthier, more prosperous places. But the standard approach to public meetings somehow makes everyone miserable. Conversations that should be inspiring can become shouting matches. So what would it look like to facilitate truly meaningful discussions between citizens and planners? What if they could be fun?For twenty years, James Rojas and John Kamp have been looking to art, creative expression,...

This practical leadership guide offers seven timeless principles for building a supportive and inclusive community with a strong sense of purpose. Many people think of "community" as something that happens by accident or emerges naturally over time. But in The Art of Community, Charles Vogl shows that there are specific principles that leaders can use to create or strengthen communities. Drawing on three thousand years of tradition, Vogl lays out...

Inspired by Abbie Hoffman's radical classic, Steal This Book, author Alexandra Styron's stirring call for resistance and citizen activism will be clearly heard by young people who don't accept "it is what it is," who want to make sure everybody gets an equal piece of the American pie, and who know that the future of the planet is now. Styron's irreverent and informative primer on how to make a difference is organized into three sections: The Why,...

"Momo has lived in Town 99 her entire life. She knows all its quirks and rhythms--the best places to buy fruit, practice tai chi in the park, and most of all, get the best meal: Noodle & Bao, run by Momo's best friend, Bao, and their ah-ma, Noodle. But Town 99 is changing. Rent is becoming unaffordable for Momo and her parents, and even Noodle & Bao has been edged out of its storefront, which was just recently bought out by a new business venture--Fancé...

"When conflicts become ingrained in communities, people lose hope. Dialogue is necessary but never sufficient, and often actions prove inadequate to produce substantial change. Even worse, chosen actions create more conflict because people have different lived experiences, priorities, and approaches to transformation. So what's the story? In The Little Book of Transformative Community Conferencing, David Anderson Hooker offers a hopeful, accessible...