Changing Communities Second Edition

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

Drawing on over thirty years of experience in community development practice, Eric Shragge offers a unique historical perspective on activism, linking various forms of local organizing to the broader goal of fundamental social change. This new edition places contemporary community organizing in a post-9/11 context and includes a discussion of national and international organizing efforts—in the Middle East, in the Occupy movement, in European resistance to austerity measures, and in recent student protests in Quebec. A new chapter-length case study covering Shragge's long-term involvement with the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal offers one of the few English-language discussions of community organizing in Quebec. Activism and Social Change is an excellent core or supplementary text in courses on social movements, community organizing, or community development.

This book introduces community planning as practiced in the United States, focusing on the comprehensive plan. Sometimes known by other names—especially master plan or general plan—the type of plan described here is the predominant form of general governmental planning in the U.S. Although many government agencies make plans for their own programs or facilities, the comprehensive plan is the only planning document that considers multiple programs and that accounts for activities on all land located within the planning area, including both public and private property. Written by a former president of the American Planning Association, Community Planning is thorough, specific, and timely. It addresses such important contemporary issues as sustainability, walkable communities, the role of urban design in public safety, changes in housing needs for a changing population, and multi-modal transportation planning. Unlike competing books, it addresses all of these topics in the context of the local comprehensive plan. There is a broad audience for this book: planning students, practicing planners, and individual citizens who want to better understand local planning and land use controls. Boxes at the end of each chapter explain how professional planners and individual citizens, respectively, typically engage the issues addressed in the chapter. For all readers, Community Planning provides a pragmatic view of the comprehensive plan, clearly explained by a respected authority.

In its second edition, this accessible health and human services manual offers a critical overview of the issues and challenges that families face and provides practical strategies for promoting resilience and positive family functioning. Through clinical and sociological perspectives and employing a strengths-based approach, this revised edition provides a broad overview of factors affecting Canadian families such as diverse family structures, healthy and unhealthy forms of communication, family culture and beliefs, couple dynamics, addiction, and developmental and psychiatric disabilities. Covering a wide range of topics, the author draws special attention to LGBTQ and military families, the effects of violence and trauma, and professional ethics and self-care. An indispensable resource for students and practitioners of social services, child and youth work, and early childhood education, the revised edition of Working with Families, Second Edition reflects current research and practices in the field and features updated statistics and accessible language.

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.

What behaviors do highly vital congregations have in common? How can all congregations move toward greater vitality? In Vital: Churches Changing Communities and the World, Jorge Acevedo passionately and effectively reveals how Grace Church in Cape Coral, Florida, has developed behaviors that result in vital and fruitful ministry. Focusing on spiritual pastoral leadership, lay leadership development, worship, small groups, and service and mission, Acevedo both inspires and coaches. He helps leaders of congregations act in their own contexts to develop behaviors essential to vitality, as identified by the recent study of 32,000 United Methodist congregations. The book includes brief summaries of learnings from the research and stories from other congregations illustrating vital behaviors in different settings. Approximately 15% of the 32,228 churches (4,961 churches) scored high in vitality based on the vitality index. What this means is that 15% of our churches have figured out some way to remain highly vital in spite of the fact that 85% have not. What this means is that we cannot assign all the blame for our congregational demise at the feet of the “institution” of the church. 4961 congregations have figured out ways to prevail in spite of our denominational condition. To me this is hopeful and promising! This book is my best attempt for us to learn from the 15% of United Methodist Churches that are vital, growing and prevailing. Jorge Acevedo

Drawing on over 30 years of experience in community development practice, Shragge offers students and professionals an historical look at community organizing and local activism from its development in 1960 to the contemporary practices of today's young activists, adding his personal reflections along the way. In the process, he makes links between a variety of forms of local organizing and the broader goal of fundamental social change. The book begins with the author's reflection on several of his experiences in community organizing practice over the past 30 years as an introduction to his basic themes. The second chapter explores various theoretical models as well as historical traditions of community organizing with practice examples drawn from Quebec. The third chapter presents a survey of contributions to social action organizing from Saul Alinsky to the New Left, feminist, and other social movements, highlighting lines of continuity among and between them. The fourth chapter examines contemporary trends in, and problems associated with, community development practice, including a critical discussion of the community economic development model. Drawing on in-depth interviews, the fifth chapter analyses the future of local activism by integrating the voices and visions of young activists with theory and practice. The final chapter offers a way to understand the history, theory, and practice of local activism and community organizing within the context of the broader fight for social change. All royalties from this book will be contributed to the Immigrant Workers Centre, Montreal.

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.