Reorienting Agencies
to Rebuild Communities
Two Paths to Healthy Places:
1. Agency services
2. Community action
POWER OF COMMUNITY
Care for the Earth Care for One Another
Prevent Crime
Respond to Disaster Promote Health Create Great Places Sustain Local Economy
Advance Social Justice Strengthen Democracy
COMMUNITY IN CRISIS
Single-purpose land use Increased mobility
More time working Fear
Electronic screens Globalization
Professionalization Specialization
KEYS TO AGENCY-
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
Move beyond siloed thinking
to focusing on whole places
City of Seattle
Department of
Little City Halls and Coordinators
Kootenay Boundary Community Services Cooperative
Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
Move from starting with needs
to starting with strengths
Every individual has gifts
of the head, heart and hands
Labeled People:
• Poor person
• Unemployed
• Non-English speaking
• Single parent
• Addict
• Offender
• Old person
• At-risk youth
• Disabled
• Homeless
Cincinnati, Ohio
New Prospect Baptist Church
Neighbourhood Matching Fund
Ballard Neighbourhood
Alki Neighbourhood
Carkeek Park
Alki Neighbourhood
Duwamish Tribe
SODO Neighbourhood
Columbia City Neighbourhood
Fremont Neighbourhood
Move from top-down
to community-driven
Neighbourhood Planning
Senior Services of King County
Photos of Central Area Gathering by Max Wells
Actions from Gatherings
Neighbourhood walking map Senior dating service
Planning for senior co-housing Gay/lesbian community projects
Virtual retirement villages
A one-stop lifelong learning website
Peppi’s Woods Maintenance Project
Four Time Banks
Intergenerational, multicultural dance party
Summit
Measuring Results
You don’t make the hog fatter by weighing it.
-Iowa farm proverb
“Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything
that counts can be counted.”
