Detroit resident 'leads with love' in local climate resiliency

Around the United States, small-town institutions are shuttering and communal ties are weakening, all less than positive signs for the fate of democracy. But in Orange, New Jersey, Mindy Fullilove and other congregants at the First Unitarian Universalist Church used a crowdfunding platform called ioby and asset-based community development to keep the doors of their church open and their community flourishing.

Amplifying local culture, history, and food through the arts increases tourism and can revitalize areas struggling with depopulation. The Hammana Artist House, a collaboration between a philanthropist and Collectif Kahraba, a local theater non-profit in Hammana, Lebanon, has resulted in an arts program that attracts new visitors to the town. In addition to the village’s historic cherry festival, the collaboration has resulted in a new artist residency program and projects that enhance the identity and visibility of the community.

Eliminating food deserts is a community effort. Thanks to work of members, volunteers, and other partners of the East New York Farmers’ Market (ENYF), the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, formerly troubled by a lack of nutritious food, now benefits from semi-weekly produce markets. ENYF also serves as a positive community service for youth and young adults.

Partnerships between nonprofits strengthen efforts to promote economic justice. Working together, several nonprofits focused on economic and restorative justice in Oakland have succeeded in opening Restore Oakland, a community and multipurpose center. The new building, which received funding from private donations and from the Akonadi foundation, provides a space nonprofits like the Ella Baker Center and the Restaurant Opportunity Centers United (ROC United).

A Phoenix nonprofit called Chicanos Por La Causa serves the Latino communities across the Southwest through education, housing, health services, and more. Their job fair, created to celebrate the opening of their new Engagement Center, aims to drive employment and improve education rates in Maryvale through partnerships with Walmart and the Maricopa County Community College District. Participants laud the Center and the program for helping them seek betterment in life, access to a job, or a better job.

Fab Youth Philly’s Play Captains program hires teens in the summer to lead play groups on multiple streets throughout the city, leading games and activities like science experiments and storytime. Since 2017, the group has supported over 500 teens, providing many of them with their first jobs. Data shows that participating in the program leads to more on-time high school graduations, better work habits, reduced summer slide and improved employability and family finances.

A pastor in Blue Island, Illinois, closed his satellite campus church and turned it into a community service center. Named the Hope Center, it aims to address community needs through a garden, automotive garage, and technology services department. Each program has a director and volunteers who run workshops to teach community members new skills.

A Catholic covenant in India, Helpers of Mount Rosary, promotes organic farming to locals and visitors from across the country on 40 acres of farming and training fields.

Parents and teachers are organizing bike buses as a healthier, social alternative to school buses and parent drop-offs. In this activity, chaperones lead groups of students to school on bikes.

To combat a lack of early warning weather systems in Western Kenya, the government-led Downscaling Climate Information program brings together technical officers to interpret the forecast and provide recommendations every season. That information is distributed to community volunteers who share the forecast with locals in as many ways as possible.