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COMMUNITIES
Communities are wonderful places! They are the places where people
live, work, love, raise families, and share common experiences. People sustain
their societies through community functioning. When individuals within communities
are able to predict, participate in, and control changes in their environment
without exploiting others (our definition of 'power'), resilience and empowerment
are the outcomes. |
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Our community
work has always had as its first goal an understanding of the informal system
and gathering places that people use to survive, assist & care for each other
and maintain their culture. We base our work on three descriptive questions:
- Why do you live here? This gives us past culture based on traditions,
beliefs, and stories of place.
- How do you stay? This lets us understand present methods
of survival, management of their environment and predictive skills.
- What would you change to make staying easier for you? This gives us
the future action needed for a fuller life by assisting with the resolution
of emerging, existing and disruptive issues.
The restoration of the red-cockaded woodpecker
in North Carolina may not be the top priority of many citizens, but having camping
places for families, and jobs for youth is. When appropriate community action is taken,
action that empowers people, mutual benefits are assured. |
Examples of some of our community-based work:
- The Social Ecology of Design:
Kailua-Kona Hawaii
- Governance Through Social
Capital, Basalt, Colorado
- Sierra
County, New Mexico (opens as a .PDF file in a new window)
- Grand Junction,
Colorado
- Medford, Oregon (opens
as a .PDF file in a new window)
- Economic Deversification, Matewan, West Virginia
- Springfield
Tire Plant, Cumberland, Maryland
- Cultural Attachment
at Peters Mountain, West Virginia
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Community-Based Stewardship and Ecosystems: Ensuring a Healthy Environment
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