Saturday, March 21, 2009

Community Building Links. No.570.

A Place at the Table provides a model for community building in which library workers dedicate time, resources, and commitment at the policy level to guarantee that community building is a high priority and that the nation’s community builders include librarians as valued partners in every enterprise. Power dies the moment action ceases. There must be a librarian at every table. Here are some organizations for linkage.

There are many organizations that work to build community. Librarians work with many of these organizations, but our associations are not prominent in their leadership and policy-making deliberations. Our daily work is not often identified in their reports in their policy documents or on their web-pages as central to community building. As librarians recognize the importance of collaboration and partnerships we will be at all these tables. Examples of community-building organizations and web-sites of special are listed here. As additional resources of interest are identified, these will be sent to the LIBRARIAN-AT-EVERY-TABLE mailing list.

The Alliance of Information and Referral Systems (AIRS). AIRS was incorporated in 1973 to improve access to services for all people through the mechanism of information and referral. AIRS meets this goal through its publications, international training conferences, and I&R clearinghouse.



COMM-ORG. Online Conference on Community Organizing and Development. The COMM-ORG mission is to help connect people who care about the craft of community organizing and to find and provide information that organizers, scholars, and scholar-organizers can use to learn, teach, and do community organizing. Click here to learn more.

Community Building Resource Exchange. This web site provides a broad array of resources and information about innovative community building efforts to revitalize poor neighborhoods and improve the life circumstances of residents and their families. Project of the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Comprehensive Community Initiatives for Children and Families.

The Community Tool Box. This is the web site created and maintained by the University of Kansas Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development in Lawrence, KS, and AHEC/Community Partners in Amherst, Massachusetts. The site has been on line since 1995, and it continues to grow on a weekly basis. Currently, the core of the Tool Box is the "how-to tools." These how-to sections use simple, friendly language to explain how to do the different tasks necessary for community health and development. For instance, there are sections on leadership, strategic planning, community assessment, advocacy, grant writing, and evaluation to give just a few examples. Click here to learn more.

IBEC, Go here to read the Win 2-1-1: Washington State 2-1-1 Benefit Cost Study report.

Local Initiatives Support Corporation's mission is to assist community development corporations (CDCs) in their efforts to transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy communities. LISC believes that CDCs are the best vehicles to achieve lasting and positive community change for the benefit of low and moderate income people. These groups are accountable to local residents and engage in a wide range of physical, economic and human development activities.

The National Assembly of Health and Human Service Organizations (formerly known as the National Assembly of National Voluntary Health and Social Welfare Organizations) is an association of national nonprofit health and human service organizations bound by a common concern for the effective delivery of health and human services to the American people, especially those in need. Click here to learn more.

National Association of Community Action Agencies. Established in 1972, the National Association of Community Action Agencies (NACAA) is the national association representing the interests of the 1,000 Community Action Agencies (CAAs) organized to fight poverty at the local level.


National Civic League. Mission is to strengthen citizen democracy by transforming democratic institutions.

The National Neighborhood Coalition serves as the national voice for neighborhoods by providing a crucial link to Washington for neighborhood and community based organizations. Fosters communications and collaboration among local, regional and national organizations working to build healthy and sustainable communities. Promotes public policies that strengthen the role of community and neighborhood-based nonprofits as problem solvers and community builders.

Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space is a blog authored by Richard Layman, a historic preservation and urban revitalization advocate and consultant in Washington, DC. His blog, "focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging."

Redefining Progress is a public policy organization that seeks to ensure a more sustainable and socially equitable world for our children and our children's children. Working both within and beyond the traditional economic framework, RP generates and refines innovative policies and ideas that balance economic well-being, the environment, and social equity so that those living today and those who will come in the future can have a better quality of life.

Shelterforce is published by the National Housing Institute, an independent nonprofit organization that examines the issues causing the crisis in housing and community in America. These issues include poverty and racism, disinvestment and lack of employment, safety, education, and breakdown of the social fabric. Click here to learn more.

UN Millennium Development Goals. "The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest." Click here to learn more.

UN Social Development. "One of the UN's central mandates is the promotion of higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development. As much as 70 per cent of the work of the UN system is devoted to accomplishing this mandate. Guiding the work is the belief that eradicating poverty and improving the well-being of people everywhere are necessary steps in creating conditions for lasting world peace." Click here to learn more.

The Urban Institute is a nonprofit policy research organization established in Washington, D.C., in 1968. The Institute's goals are to sharpen thinking about society's problems and efforts to solve them, improve government decisions and their implementation, and increase citizens' awareness about important public choices.

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