Resilience.org aims to support building community resilience in a world of multiple emerging challenges: the decline of cheap energy, the depletion of critical resources like water, complex environmental crises like climate change and biodiversity loss, and the social and economic issues which are linked to these. We like to think of the site as a community library with space to read and think, but also as a vibrant café in which to meet people, discuss ideas and projects, and pick up and share tips on how to build the resilience of your community, your household, or yourself.
Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) builds grassroots power to create social and economic justice for low-income, women and women identifying, immigrant, black, and brown communities in Los Angeles. To do this, SCOPE organizes communities, develops leaders, collaborates through strategic alliances, builds capacity through training programs, and educates South L.A.'s residents to have an active role in shaping policies that affect the quality of life in our region. Justice, respect, responsibility, integrity, and voice: These are our core values.
It is vital that we understand the physical nature of wealth so we can envision and build economic systems that are capable of (1) reducing chronic inequality in the world; (2) recognizing the inherent value of nature as a foundational building block for any economic system; and (3) exploring the 'design space' of all possible economic systems to find those best suited for planetary sustainability.
The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant societies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people.
We seek to strengthen the rule of law; respect for human rights, minorities, and a diversity of opinions; democratically elected governments; and a civil society that helps keep government power in check.
We help to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights.
We implement initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media.
We build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information.
Working in every part of the world, the Open Society Foundations place a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of people in marginalized communities.
"Zebras Unite is a community of entrepreneurs, investors and allies dedicated to building companies that balance both profit and purpose.
Join the community to learn from likeminded individuals, pool resources and best practices and collectively build a new model for inclusive and ethical entrepreneurship. "
We build tools to get cities on the path to better technology, help citizens get the responsive government they should expect, and scale up small discussions to city-wide change. We are an impartial, informed guide to civic technology, incorporating technology, transportation and city planning, an open-source approach, and the standards knowledge necessary to deliver valuable tools to our clients.
This eventually will lead to a new concept, "mobile networked governance." Community leaders will develop knowledge-connection processes that harness the vast resources of disparate community members. We'll soon see a shift from radical individualism to many new levels of deep collaboration. Ultimately, this mobile networked governance will be transformational, creating a new decision-making structure that engages as many people in the community as are interested.
NKCDC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing the Kensington, Fishtown, and Port Richmond neighborhoods in Philadelphia. Our mission is to strengthen the physical, social, and economic fabric of the community by being a catalyst for sustainable development and community building.
The National League of Cities (NLC) is dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities. Working in partnership with the 49 state municipal leagues, NLC serves as a resource to and an advocate for the more than 19,000 cities, villages and towns it represents.
Our Theory of Change
The Network is about: Building community demand for results, by mobilizing residents and stakeholders around an equity agenda creating opportunity for families and transforming neighborhoods. The Network is about higher aspirations, and about providing both the expectation of a better future as well as the connections and collective power to pursue it. Creating new connections to systems and organizations by creating new avenues and approaches for interacting with systems that otherwise pose barriers. Transforming the environment to sustain the change, creating family-centered, equitable, results-focused systems that work for all families. Holding ourselves and others accountable for what we say we are doing in community.
The Loughborough Junction Action Group, or LJAG, is an independent group of people who live or work in Loughborough Junction in south-east London. We share the common aim of regenerating and improving the area and the lives of the people who live there.
We are embedded in our diverse and vibrant neighbourhood and hold festivals, street parties and monthly gatherings, literary and film events and organise arts activities in local schools. Our members work with many local organisations, such as tenants' and residents' associations, community initiatives such as Building Communities in Coldharbour and the Big Local, which are working on projects designed to empower local people, improve community cohesion and enhance neighbourhood facilities.
The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change. Our mission is to promote community health and development by connecting people, ideas, and resources.
CivicSolve is a consulting firm with a focus on civic engagement, and a mission of "building better communities through civic engagement." We believe in connecting people with their own power as citizens and the power that exists in communities.
Learn more about the system dynamics lab at Washington University in St. Louis. We are experts in developing simulation models of problems facing complex social systems. A resource for students, professionals, and researchers, we help build the capacity of those who want to learn and apply system dynamics in order to understand and address specific problems within an organization and community.
Our Research
Our research includes a focus on understanding the role of social determinants at the community level, identifying strategies for reducing disparities, and informing implementation, scale-up and sustainability of evidence based interventions.
Application areas include community responses to intimate partner violence, mental health, natural resources, obesity, cancer, child and maternal health, financial inclusion, K-12 education, and juvenile/criminal justice.
Community Engagement
We are actively involved in advancing participatory group model building (GMB) methods in diverse communities including both international and domestic settings.
Teaching
We are invested in building capacity in system dynamics among the next generation of researchers, policy makers, and social innovators. The lab offers a sequence of graduate level courses that prepare students to tackle dynamic social problems with innovative, design-driven, transdisciplinary solutions.
Listed below are our design principles and examples of how we've used them so far. These build on, and add to, our original 7 digital principles.
1. Start with needs*
2. Do less
3. Design with data
4. Do the hard work to make it simple
5. Iterate. Then iterate again.
6. build for inclusion
7. Understand context
8. build digital services, not websites
9. Be consistent, not uniform
10. Make things open: it makes things better
In today's economy, successful communities are creating transportation systems that can do the job of moving people and goods while simultaneously improving the quality and character of their town. They recognize that building a strong and more vibrant economy relies on expanding mobility choices. In short, great communities have great transportation systems.
A SmartCitizenry co-operative is for you and your neighbours, Everyone is local and what you do together is local. Together you work out what needs you have that together as a co-op you can solve. It could be energy needs, home help and support, waste management, recycling - whatever is important to you that you can't do alone to get the impact and make the difference that is needed. Everything you do is building community one action at a time.
The Collective Action Toolkit (CAT) is a package of resources and activities that enable groups of people anywhere to organize, build trust, and collaboratively create solutions for problems impacting their community. The toolkit provides a dynamic framework that integrates knowledge and action to solve challenges. Designed to harness the benefits of group action and the power of open sharing, the activities draw on each participant's strengths and perspectives as the group works to accomplish a common goal.
PACE's mission is to inspire interest, understanding, and investment in civic engagement.
PACE'S goals are...
to build a community within philanthropy committed to vigorous debate and action around encouraging participation and engagement in community, civic, and political life;
to inspire and incubate strategic collaborations with policy makers, nonprofits, business, and the media to support active citizenship; and
to increase the quantity and the quality of philanthropic investment in civic engagement strategies.
The mission of the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities is to create strong, sustainable communities by connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation, and helping to build a clean energy economy.
