Community Strength

Leadership Education and Training / NFP Resources

Tips for Running Effective Self-Facilitated Meetings
WEB Reference, September 20, 2006, (Hollyhock) - The Agenda Ideas for the Self-Facilitated Meeting prepared by Hollyhock Leadership Institute trainer, Julian Griggs, provides a grab-bag of ideas for structuring the agenda for a self-facilitated meeting. The various agenda items listed need not, in fact probably should not, all be used in any single meeting. Remember that process should support good discussion, not get in the way! http://www.hollyhockleadership.org/resources/sharpeningyourskills/selffacil

Local Living Economies

BigBoxToolKit.com Launched to Help Grassroots Groups Counter Big-Box Stores
MINNEAPOLIS, MN, September 25, 2006 (Stacy Mitchell, ILSR) – The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which has helped grassroots groups in dozens of communities block the spread of Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers, has launched a new online resource center to bolster these local campaigns. www.BigBoxToolKit.com provides a variety of tools to help citizens both beat the big boxes and chart a new course for economic development in their communities. The site includes an interactive map showing the more than 200 cities and towns where grassroots groups are currently fighting big-box proposals, working to pass local laws that limit large-scale retail development, forming independent business alliances, and similar initiatives. http://www.ilsr.org/columns/2006/092506.html

Local Living Economies / Sustainable MicroEnterprise

Ashoka Launches New Website
EList, September 20, 2006, (Anamaria Schindler, Ashoka/Changemakers) - I would like to personally welcome you to Ashoka's new website http://www.ashoka.org. As you may know, this year Ashoka has reached a milestone - 25 years of developing social entrepreneurship worldwide. In celebration of our achievements and as an investment in our future, our new website reflects and reinforces our culture of innovation. The new website features information on Ashoka programs, interactive maps to locate country information, a pressroom with the latest Ashoka news highlights and archives, and a comprehensive resource center on social entrepreneurship.

Local Living Economies

Building Community Wealth
WEB Reference, September 2006, (Centre for Community Enterprise) - If your nonprofit or charitable organization is thinking about social enterprise as a way to achieve its mission, this is the manual for you. What does "ready" look like? How do we get there? What should we do now, next year, and the year after that? It's packed with information, it's extensively field-tested, and it's free! http://www.cedworks.com/customer/product.php?productid=4738&cat=&page=1

Local Living Communities

Making Waves: “Growing Hope” Special Edition
WEB Reference, September 2006, (Centre for Community Enterprise) - Hungry for some real food - food that is plentiful, nutritious, sustainable, remunerative to farmers, yet affordable? The Summer 2006 edition of making waves magazine is dedicated to scaling up community-based alternatives to our ailing food system. Politically, this is a strategic moment for communities to make themselves heard - if practitioners can get organized http://www.cedworks.com/waves.html.

Cool Projects / Fun in Activism

Are you Green? Pull up a Chair…
WEB Reference - Every month in cities across the world, a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business meet up for a beer at informal sessions known as Green Drinks. A simple "are you green?" gets you in, and with everyone inviting someone else along, Green Drinks is an organic, self-organising network. These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. Now active in 139 cities worldwide, Canada is a 2005 entrant to the world of Green Drinks, getting off to a fine start with Vancouver, BC with other cities quickly following http://www.greendrinks.org/.

Science and Technology / Empowerment for Social Change

Appropriating Technology
WEB Reference, August 2006, (Ron Eglash, Public Sphere Project) - We usually think of technology as that which is designed by elite groups -- mostly male, mostly white, mostly upper class, etc. But the lay public can also be thought of as producers of technology and science. The "smiley face" emoticons we use in email, for example, were not designed by experts; it was ordinary people taking advantage of a flexibility in the system. Technology appropriation can be profound: Latino "street mechanics" for example created the Low Rider car which revolutionized their culture. Black teenagers created the "scratch" sound of rap by appropriating the turntable. Appropriated technology can help the disenfrachised gain social power http://diac.cpsr.org/cgi-bin/diac02/pattern.cgi/public?pattern_id=495.

Local Living Communities / Empowerment for Social Change

Slum Residents Become the Architects of Their Own Fate
INDIA, July 2006, (Arundhati Ray, Changemakers) – About 75 percent of the world's one billion poor people live in urban slums without decent shelter or basic sanitation, health, and other city services. But three citizen organizations in India have joined forces to turn this scenario upside down. They are helping slum residents organize themselves to gain the skills they need to be powerful advocates for their own interests.
http://www.changemakers.net/journal/300606/ray.cfm

Hybrid Models / Sustainable Microenterprise

Ecotourism Offers Hope for Chinese Ecosystems & the People Who Live in Them
YUNNAN Province, China, September 5, 2006 (Lila Buckley) - Laojun Mountain has long been considered sacred to the Chinese minority groups who call it home. Flanking the foothills of the Himalaya in northwestern Yunnan province, the region contains more than 100 species of wild rhododendron, nearly 100 known mammal species, and over 150 distinct bird species. Many of these plants and animals are highly endangered, including two species of the Yunnan Golden Monkey, of which less than 1,500 exist in the wild. Yet despite these ecological riches, the region’s human residents remain poor and marginalized, left behind in the rapid economic development occurring around them. The story is all too typical in global conservation efforts: marginalized humans living on marginal land, destroying critical habitat and diversity as they struggle to survive in a global economy that undervalues or ignores them. Future development of the area promises some flow of cash, but with it more roads and pollution. It is a dizzying cycle of humans versus nature, where neither is the winner. For the past decade or so, proponents of ecotourism have boldly proposed a way out of this cycle. Ecotourism, in its purest form, aims to be low-impact for both local communities and the environment, offering a sustained source of income while encouraging visitors to “leave only footprints.” http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4501