Experienced community organizer and professor Patricia Spindel provides a practical guide for producing change through community action and social activism in the updated second edition of Changing Communities. Spindel explores who has power in society and how communities can mobilize to create positive change by building capacity, developing community structures, and taking direct action to shift power relations. Outlining a practical approach to asset mapping, creating community economic development strategies, and critiquing some current approaches to community development, the chapters cover topics including the impact of corruption and the influence of powerful interests, community strengths and needs assessment, community-based research, various community development strategies, and the principles and some of the tactics used in community organization. Equipped with case studies and practical examples, this fundamental guide is an essential resource for students in community development, social service work, gerontology, and other human services and helping professions. FEATURES - Includes a community strengths-based assessment framework developed by the author, referred to as the Strengths, Assets, Challenges, and Opportunities Assessment (SACO) - Offers case studies and practical examples from Canada and the United States - Provides students with practical knowledge on how to build powerful coalitions, raise funds for grassroots projects, and deal with the press and social media, including how to write a press release

In this thoroughly revised edition of Managing Growth in America’s Communities, readers will learn the principles that guide intelligent planning for communities of any size, grasp the major issues in successfully managing growth, and discover what has actually worked in practice (and where and why). This clearly written book details how American communities have grappled with the challenges of planning for growth and the ways in which they are adapting new ideas about urban design, green building, and conservation. It describes the policies and programs they have implemented, and includes examples from towns and cities throughout the U.S. Growth management is essential today, as communities seek to control the location, impact, character, and timing of development in order to balance environmental and economic needs and concerns. The author, who is one of the nation’s leading authorities on managing community growth, provides examples from dozens of communities across the country, as well as state and regional approaches. Brief profiles present overviews of specific problems addressed, techniques utilized, results achieved, and contact information for further research. Informative sidebars offer additional perspectives from experts in growth management, including Robert Lang, Arthur C. Nelson, Erik Meyers, and others. In particular, he considers issues of population growth, eminent domain, and the importance of design, especially green design. He also reports on the latest ideas in sustainable development, smart growth, neighborhood design, transit-oriented development, and green infrastructure planning. Like its predecessor, the second edition of Managing Growth in America’s Communities is essential reading for anyone who is interested in how communities can grow intelligently.

Community development finds itself in times of unprecedented political, social and economic change, locally and globally, at the same time as divisions between poverty and privilege widen. Building practical approaches to theory and theoretical approaches to practice, this updated and expanded second edition of a bestselling text develops critiques of the changing context and identifies challenges faced by community development both at community level and as a collective force for a more just, equal and sustainable future. Featuring a range of different models of community development and illustrative stories from practitioners in the field, the new edition will be essential reading for practitioners, students and educators involved in community development, youth and community work, social work, health and education.

Most of our communities are fragmented and at odds within themselves. Businesses, social services, education, and health care each live within their own worlds. The same is true of individual citizens, who long for connection but end up marginalized, their gifts overlooked, their potential contributions lost. What keeps this from changing is that we are trapped in an old and tired conversation about who we are. If this narrative does not shift, we will never truly create a common future and work toward it together. What Peter Block provides in this inspiring new book is an exploration of the exact way community can emerge from fragmentation. How is community built? How does the transformation occur? What fundamental shifts are involved? What can individuals and formal leaders do to create a place they want to inhabit? We know what healthy communities look like—there are many success stories out there. The challenge is how to create one in our own place. Block helps us see how we can change the existing context of community from one of deficiencies, interests, and entitlement to one of possibility, generosity, and gifts. Questions are more important than answers in this effort, which means leadership is not a matter of style or vision but is about getting the right people together in the right way: convening is a more critical skill than commanding. As he explores the nature of community and the dynamics of transformation, Block outlines six kinds of conversation that will create communal accountability and commitment and describes how we can design physical spaces and structures that will themselves foster a sense of belonging. In Community, Peter Block explores a way of thinking about our places that creates an opening for authentic communities to exist and details what each of us can do to make that happen.

A comparative study of economic development policy, and its relationship with local power structures and cultural and social relations, in two Maryland towns that have rejected development.

A new edition with new and updated case studies and analysis that demonstrate the trend in U.S. environmental policy toward sustainability at local and regional levels.

The first edition of this book discussed the meaning, principles, and methods of managing community practice, focusing on the role and skills needed by managers. Since the first edition, there has been an increase in the structured involvement of communities in developing, delivering, and evaluating public policies and projects. This new edition updates all the chapters to address these recent developments and provides new case examples. It also includes new chapters on the manager's role in community research and key challenges for the future.