Bringing People Together Changes Everything

Simply bringing people together in a socially supportive environment can enable relationships to form and systems to function more efficiently and transparently. In other words, when people don’t meet, not much happens. People Can Teach Themselves

Communities Changing Themselves

The “institutional framework” is the laws, policies, and procedures of local government and nonprofit organizations, and how those systems interact. Our Institutional Framework Development Plan outlines the steps
required to integrate existing social systems and create a more resilient and flexible community.

The Wanderer
Trust
My “conversation” With ChatGPT

A Bridge Community Model

This is an AI generated piece, created after ChatGPT had read my book manuscript: it’s an interesting point of view.…

A Movement With No Central Authority

According to the International Association for Community Development, community development “is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes…

Aging Into The Future

I recently asked a couple I know who, like me, are retired, “Do you guys talk about aging?” The topic…

AI, Me, and My Community

Let’s say, for the sake of argument (and a lot of people are talking about this), that AI is just…

Air Travel vs. Community Life

The introduction of the twin-engine Douglas DC-3 in 1935 was a turning point in human mobility—the beginning of routine travel…

Belonging and Othering

Belonging and othering are human tendencies—perhaps responsible for most wars and nearly all the ways groups have helped or harmed…

Civic Engagement

Low voter turnout, declining volunteerism, reduced attendance at town hall meetings, and the erosion of local news all point to…

Collaboration

The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory in 2023 noting that loneliness affects about 33% of American adults. However, a…

Community Adversaries

Village and town governments often create committees to address quality-of-life issues such as livability, sustainability, and community well-being. These bodies…

Community Boundaries

I live in a village of about 8,000 people, surrounded by other towns and villages of similar size. By U.S.…

Community Risk Management

The purpose of risk management is to anticipate and address factors that may cause harm – loss of something of…

Dysfunctional Community

Love it, hate it, or feel indifferent—the place where you live, your local community, will always have its strengths and…

Education, Outreach, Feedback

Low voter turnout, declining volunteerism, and reduced attendance at town hall meetings are symptoms of disengagement from the community. There…

Fighting Wars Instead of Arguing

It feels like the worst aspects of history are repeating themselves: we have new global conflicts, new antisemitism, new fractured…

From Kindness to Belonging

Sometimes it’s the simple things that help, and then we forget what they were. A sense of kindness and belonging…

Gentle Thursday

Gentle Thursday is a funny name for a day. As a statement, it kind of throws you off balance for…

Holistic Community Development

There are many indicators that the quality of community life needs to improve—high suicide and addiction rates, street crime, unemployment,…

Institutional Framework Development Plan

WorldCat lists roughly 650,000 community development-related books in libraries, and the Urban Institute estimates about 6,225 U.S.-based nonprofit organizations involved…

My “conversation” With ChatGPT

My experience tells me that the subject of community is not very interesting to many people, perhaps to most. That’s a challenge…

Our Single Greatest Problem

As we confront the challenges brought by artificial intelligence, national and international strife, and accelerating climate change, it may sound…

Path to Plan

My involvement in community development evolved over time – ‘the way some people’s careers take a path they couldn’t have…

People Can Teach Themselves

Imagine two different communities, each with newly-elected mayors. One community’s mayor has detailed plans in hand for the management and…

Saving The U.S. From Ourselves

The following is written for those of us who believe the United States is struggling—not just politically, but socially, and…

Shame

It seems, almost everywhere you look, people are becoming angrier and more aggressive. Reports of unruly airline passengers have increased.…

Sparks to Action, Actions to Spirit

Community spirit reveals itself in many different places and takes many different forms. Media fandoms—Star Trek, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, or The Vampire Diaries—generate remarkable levels of enthusiasm and belonging.

The Best Hope For The Future

Who or what is going to save us? Save us from what, you say? There’s a lot to be concerned about—income inequality, globalized economics, international conflicts, pandemics, global warming, artificial intelligence, crime.

The Structure of Empowerment

The Structure of Empowerment Community development programs rely on two basic forces to accomplish their missions: beliefs and structures. Beliefs…

The Wanderer

The twenty-first century ideal of a self-sufficient, John Wayne-style tough guy—the loner as hero—was expressed nicely in a 1961 song by Dion and the Belmonts called The Wanderer.

Trust

It seems that many of our major social and intellectual institutions have lost our trust—and it doesn’t take a genius to see the effects this has had on our national politics and local communities. I asked an “impartial” observer, ChatGPT, what Americans distrust most.
Copyright: Alan Pakaln